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PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS 
From the Marine Museum at Madrid. 



THE 

STORY OF COLUMBUS 



BY 

N. J. LENNES 

AUTHOR OF A SERIES OF BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 

AND 

PAUL C. PHILLIPS 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 



64 ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 



J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 



e: 



COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPA^fT 



Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company 
The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A. 

APR 18 1921 

g)CI.A6U672 

'Wo I 



si 

; FOREWORD 

One of the two men who made this book is an historian. 
It is his business to try to find out what people did a long 
time ago and to know whether or not the stories told 
about them are true. He has worked over this book care- 
fully to make sure that everything in it is as nearly true 
as it can now be made. The other man has a family of 
boys and girls. In his house there is a big fireplace and 
in front of it a bearskin rug. In the evening he lies down 
on this rug and tells these stories to the children. Then 
he tells them to his dictating machine, the stenographer 
copies them, and the printer makes them into books. 
Now he is telling other stories to these boys and girls, and 
some time they too may be made into books. If they are, 
you will have a chance to read them if you should want 
to do so. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I PAGE 

Before the First Voyage 1-31 

CHAPTER II 

The First Voyage 32- 68 

CHAPTER III 

Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 69-107 

CHAPTER IV 
The Third Voyage 108-136 

CHAPTER V 

The Fourth Voyage 137-159 

CHAPTER VI 
The Last Years of Columbus 160-168 



MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

1. Portrait of Columbus Frontispiece 

2. The Landing of Columbus 1 

3. Map of World, Showing Parts Known Definitely to Europeans 

at the Time of Columbus 2 

4. Map Showing Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and North Africa . . 3 

5. Map Showing Mediterranean 5 

6. Map Showing Islands Discovered by the Portuguese 6 

7. Map Showing Overland Routes to India 8 

8. Toscanelh's Map 12 

9. Toscanelli's Map, reduced 15 

10. Map Showing Portuguese Explorations Along Coast of Africa 16 

11. Map of Aragon, Castile and Moorish Spain 22 

12. La Rabida 23 

13. Columbus Before the Court at Salamanca 24 

14. Ferdinand of Aragon 25 

15. Isabella of Castile 27 

16. Ship of 1486 32 

17. Ship of Fifteenth Century 33 

18. 19. Map Drawn from Behaim's Globe 34, 35 

20. Portrait of Columbus 38 

21. Portrait of Columbus 39 

22. The Canaries 41 

23. Outline Map of First Outward Voyage 42 

24. Map Showing Deviation of the Compass 43 

25. Map Showing Sargasso Sea 45 

26. 27. Detailed Map of First Outward Journey 46, 47 

28. Map of Drifting from September 19th to September 26th 48 

29. Outline Map of First Voyage Showing Main Dates 49 

30. Map Showing Island Where Columbus May Have Landed 53 

31. Map of Watlings Island 54 

32. Indian Bed or Hammock 56 

33. Detailed Map of Journey Among Islands 61 

34. Map of Haiti Showing La Navidad 62 

35. Map of First Homeward Voyage 67 

36. Map of Spain Showing Palos, Seville, and Barcelona 70 

vii 



viii Maps and Illustrations 

PAGE 

37. Columbus Commemorative Medal 72 

38. Columbus's Coat of Arms 73 

39. Map Showing Course of Second Voyage 76 

40. Map Showing Second Voyage Among Islands 77 

41. Old Picture Showing Fight With Cannibals 79 

42. Map of Haiti Showing Isabella, Vega Real, Fort St. Thomas. . . 88 

43. Armor Used in Time of Columbus 92 

44. Map Showing Voyage of Exploration Among Islands on Second 

Voyage 93 

45. Map Showing Where Columbus Thought the Coast of Cuba was 96 

46. Map Showing Course Columbus Proposed to Follow to go Around 

the World 97 

47. Portrait of Bartholomew Columbus 100 

48. Columbus in Chains 108 

49. Map Showing Course of Third Voyage 109 

50. Map Showing Third Voyage Among Islands 110 

51. Columbus Along the Coast of Central and South America, Third 

Voyage Ill 

62. Old Picture Showing Columbus Trading for Pearls 114 

63. Cathedral at Santo Domingo 1 16 

64. Map of South America 122 

55. Map Showing Course of Fourth Outward Voyage 138 

66, Map Showing Course Along Central America on Fourth Voyage. 140 

57. Weapons Used by Natives of Veragua 141 

58. Map Showing Course of Voyage from Veragua to Haiti 147 

59. Signature and Monogram of Columbus 160 

60. Statue of Columbus in Genoa 163 

61. Statue of Columbus at Santo Domingo 165 

62. Map of Spain Showing ValladoUd 166 

63. House Where Columbus Died 167 



THE STORY OF COLUMBUS 



CHAPTER I 
Before the First Voyage 

I. The Coming of Columbus. — In the early morning 
of October twelfth, in the year 1492, the Indians living 




THE LANDING OF COLUMBUS 

on a small island not far from Cuba saw three strange 
objects out on the ocean. These Indians had never seen 
any such objects before and did not have the slightest 
idea what they were. Soon they saw men get off from 
them into a boat and row toward the shore. When the 
boat came nearer, the men were seen to have white skins 

1 



The Story of Columbus 



and to wear the most curious clothes which covered all 
their bodies except their hands and faces. The Indians 
had never before seen men with white skins, and they had 
never seen people wearing such clothes. The Indians 
themselves were almost naked. These strange white 
people were Christopher Columbus and his followers, who 




MAP OF THE WORLD. THE PARTS KNOWN DEFINITELY TO EUROPEANS AT THE TIME OP 
COLUMBUS ARE SHADED. DOTTED LINE SHOWS COURSE OF COLUMBUS's FIRST VOYAGE 

had come across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe in three 
small sailing vessels. No wonder the Indians were sur- 
prised, for up to that time not a single white person lived 
in all of what is now called America. 

Why did Columbus go across a wide ocean on a journey 
as far as from Boston to San Francisco in these little 
vessels? He must have had good reasons for doing so, 
because in his small ships the journey was very dangerous. 
It was not the kind of a sailing trip that people would 
take for the fun of it. Did Columbus know about America, 
or was he trying to go to some other land about which he 



Before the First Voyage 



did know? If you read this book, you will find answers 
to these questions. 

We will now tell the story of Columbus, where he was 
born, where he got his ships, why he started out over the 
great ocean, what he was trying to find, and what he really 
did find. 




MAP SHOWING ITALY, PRANCE, SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND THE CITIES OF GENOA, SAVONA, 

AND PALOS 

2. Where Columbus Came From. — At the time of 
Columbus, nearly all the white people of the world lived 
in Europe. The parts of the world about which they 
knew are shown in the shaded portion of the map. We 
may be sure that there were many people who were curious 
to know about the lands beyond this area. Some were 
trying to work along the west coast of Africa, to see how 
far land extended in that direction. Others had made 
long journeys overland eastward to India and China, and 
while there had even learned something about Japan. 



4 The Story of Columbus 

Columbus decided to go straight out into the ocean, 
and the path along which he sailed is shown by the dotted 
line in the map. Columbus was born in Italy, but it was 
in Spain that he got his ships and the people who sailed 
with him. Indeed, he had been in Spain less than ten 
years when he started on his great journey. 

3. The Young Columbus. — It is more interesting to 
read about places when we know where they are. For 
this reason we give here a map which shows the countries 
of Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. It shows also 
the cities of Genoa and Savona in Italy and the town 
of Palos in Spain. These countries and cities will be 
mentioned again in the story which follows. 

It is surprising how little is known about the life of 
the young Columbus. He was born in Italy and very 
likely in the city of Genoa. The year of his birth is now 
generally beheved to have been 1446. If this is true, 
Columbus was forty-six years old when he started on his 
journey from Spain across the Atlantic. His father was 
a poor man who made his living by weaving cloth. It is 
known that Columbus worked with his father, combing 
wool and weaving, and that people called him a wool 
comber or weaver as long as he lived in Italy. 

We do not know how long Columbus went to school, 
if indeed he went to school at all, but we do know that in 
later life he was one of the best educated men of his time. 
He read and wrote Latin with ease, as well as his own 
Italian language and also Portuguese and Spanish. He 
read all important books on geography and travel, and 
a great many other books that are interesting only to 
learned people. He was in the habit of writing in the 



Before the First Voyage 



margins of the books which he read, and several of these 
with marginal notes in his handwriting are still to be found 
in libraries of Spain. He was an expert penman and made 
many beautiful and accurate maps. He knew much about 
mathematics, astronomy, and the art of sailing. 

The people of Genoa were much engaged in trading 
and their goods were carried in ships that sailed back and 
forth over the Mediterranean. A large part of this trade 
came from the eastern end of the Mediterranean, where 




MAP SHOWING MEDITERRANEAN OVER WHICH MERCHANTS OF GENOA CARRIED THEIR 
GOODS TO AND FROM CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE EAST 

they got silks, spices and other valuable goods that had 
been carried overland from the Far East. 

There are stories that Columbus went to sea while very 
young, and that he even took part in some of the wars 
which were then going on. But whether he went to sea 
as a mere boy or not, it is certain that he heard many 
exciting tales from sailors who returned to Genoa. In 
those days there were many pirates, who attacked trading 
ships, killed the sailors, and stole the goods. For this 
reason, sea-going was very exciting and dangerous, and 
those who came back told thrilling stories to which the 



6 



The Story of Columbus 



young Columbus must have listened with great inter- 
est. We may be sure that the exciting and adventurous 
life of the sailor had far greater attraction for him than 
the dull and quiet life of the weaver. 

When Columbus was about twenty-seven years of age, 
he left Italy and went to Portugal. 

4. Why Columbus Went to Portugal. — It was no wonder 

that a young man inter- 
ested in the sea should go 
to Portugal. The Portu- 
guese were known as the 
best seamen in the world 
and had discovered more 
new lands than any other 
people of their time. They 
had sailed out into the 
Atlantic, which was then 
known as the Sea of Dark- 
ness, and had discovered 
all the islands which are 
shown on the small map. 
They had also worked 
their way far down along 
the western coast of Africa. 
When Columbus was still a boy the Turks conquered 
the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and destroyed 
the trade which the people of Genoa had carried on with 
the East. For this reason many of the sailors and map 
makers of Genoa had gone to Portugal to serve on her 
ships and help in her discoveries. Among these men was 
Bartholomew, a younger brother of Christopher Columbus, 




MAP SHOWING ISLANDS DISCOVERED BY THE 
PORTUGUESE 

The Azores, Madeiras and Canaries were 
known to tlie ancients and rediscovered early 
in the 14th century. Portuguese colonies were 
established in the Madeiras about 1418, in the 
Azores about 1431. 



Before the First Voyage 7 

who had gone to Portugal to work as a map maker. It 
was but natural that Columbus should follow where many 
of his neighbors had gone before him. Some of them had, 
no doubt, come back to tell their stories, and we must 
remember that people who return from strange lands are 
very likely to make their stories more exciting than the 
adventures really were. The men who returned from 
these adventures were looked upon as great and wonderful 
and Columbus wanted very much to become like them. 

5. Columbus in Portugal. — We have just seen that 
Bartholomew Columbus had gone to Portugal ahead of 
his older brother, and that he was engaged in making 
maps. When Christopher Columbus reached Portugal he 
too began making maps, possibly in partnership with his 
brother. Portugal was a good place for map makers 
because at that time stories about new discoveries traveled 
very slowly, and those who made maps wanted to show the 
most newly discovered lands, so as to make their maps as 
complete as possible. In those days maps were made by 
hand, one by one, and not printed as they are today. 
For this reason the making of maps was a great deal more 
of a trade than it is now. It is important to keep in mind 
that in Portugal, Columbus was always in touch with that 
spirit of adventure which goes with the sailing into un- 
known oceans and the search for new lands. As we shall 
see later, it is likely that he himself took part in some of 
the voyages of the Portuguese. 

Soon after he came to Portugal, Columbus was married 
to a young lady of good family. They had a son, Diego, 
who was born a year or two later. If there were other 
children they died young, because the name of none of 



8 



The Story of Columbus 



them has come down to us. Columbus said, however, in a 
letter written after he left Portugal, that he had left his 
wife and children. We know that he took his son Diego 




MAP SHOWING OVERLAND ROUTES TO INDIA 



with him, so, according to that letter, there must have 
been other children. 

In these earlier years of his life Columbus took a great 
deal of interest in geography and in the discoveries which 
were being made. It is unfortunate that later he seems 
to have lost this interest in geography itself and that his 



Before the First Voyage 9 

thoughts turned more and more to the discovery of gold 
and other riches. 

6. Stories of the Far East. — When Columbus started 
westward across the Atlantic, he expected to reach the 
east coast of Asia. Why did he want to go to Asia? For 
many hundreds of years before the time of Columbus, the 
people of Italy, and especially of his own city of Genoa, 
had been carrying on a trade with eastern Asia, bringing 
the goods overland along the lines which are shown on 
this map. Columbus had seen the great wealth which 
the people of Genoa gained by this trade, and he had also 
seen how their wealth was rapidly being lost after the trade 
was stopped by the Turks who had conquered the eastern 
shores of the Mediterranean. He found that the Portuguese 
were trying to get this trade by sailing around the south- 
ern end of Africa. In time he came to believe, however, that 
by sailing westward he could reach Asia by a shorter route 
than by going around Africa, and after all it was not cer- 
tain as yet that it was possible to sail around Africa at all. 

Now and then a traveler would go to these eastern 
countries and come back with the most wonderful stories 
about the riches he had seen. The stories of the travels 
of three of these men are marvelous, indeed. Their 
names are, Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, and Nicolo 
di Conti. Many of their stories were, of course, not true. 
They told of cities with bridges built of costly stone; they 
told about more gold and silver and pearls than there 
really was at that time an3rvvhere in the world. All things, 
except men, they said, were finer in the East than else- 
where; the trees grew taller, the animals were larger. Only 
the people were small and weak, and not so brave as in 



10 The Story of Columbus 

Europe. They had been fed so well and had lived in a 
climate where they needed to do so little work that they 
had become soft and puny. 

The people of Europe were anxious to find an easy 
way to reach these very rich countries where they could 
trade — and, it must be said, not only trade, but even 
steal the riches and carry them away. We shall find 
later in this story that this is precisely what Columbus 
did with the Indians, and that is what a great many 
others did for years to come. 

People like to tell wonderful stories and they also like 
to believe them, and so these stories of the riches of the 
Far East were not only beheved, but as they were told 
from time to time they were improved upon, and the East 
grew richer and richer as the stories were repeated. It is 
no wonder then that many people in Italy, Portugal, and 
Spain were trying to find some direct way to these untold 
treasures where they might easily make themselves rich. 
It is difficult for us, who live far from that time and from 
those places, to understand just how excited they got 
about it. We know how people now go ahnost mad when 
they hear about the finding of gold. Hundreds of thou- 
sands rush away from home and from their work, trying 
to get rich all of a sudden by digging gold. But in those 
days people could not rush to India as they do now to 
newly found gold fields. The only way they knew was 
to sail to the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and then 
to go overland on a long and difficult journey. But this 
route had been made impossible by the Turks, who refused 
to let Christians carry on trade over the lands which they 
had conquered. There were, too, many stories of savage 



Before the First Voyage 11 

beasts and other great dangers. So people began to think 
more and more about finding other ways to go to the Far 
East. The Portuguese were trying to sail around the south 
coast of Africa. A few were thinking about going around 
the world by sailing westward across the Atlantic. This 
last idea finally led Columbus to make his great journey. 

7. How Columbus Came to Believe the Earth Round. 
— We now know that the earth is round, very nearly the 
shape of a true sphere. At the time of Columbus most 
people believed that it was flat. Some thought that it 
was flat and round, just like the top of. a dining table, and 
others thought that it was flat and square, or rectangular, 
like the top of a flat desk. Those who believed the earth 
flat said that if it were round like a ball, then there must 
be people or animals of some kind on the other side of it 
and that they would be walking with their feet pointed 
upward and their heads pointed downward. This, they 
said, could not be, because those on the other side would 
fall off the earth. In answer to the argument that if the 
earth were flat, the water of the ocean would run off the 
edge, they said that all around the edge of the earth 
there was land which kept it from running off. 

However, the belief that the earth is round had been held 
by many people for nearly two thousand years before the 
time of Columbus. Some stories told about Columbus would 
lead us to believe that this idea was new with him, but that 
is by no means true. There were the two beliefs that we 
have mentioned about the shape of the earth, and the credit 
that belongs to Columbus is, that he cliose the right one. 

Columbus read all the books on geography that he could 
find, and we know from the remarks which he wrote in 



12 



The Story of Columbus 



their margins that he was most interested in the shape 
of the earth and the possibihty of reaching the East by 
saihng westward. When still a young man, not far from 
thirty years of age, he wrote to one of the wisest men of 
that time, an Itahan by name ToscaneUi, asking him for 
his opinion about the shape of the earth, and telhng him 
of his idea of saihng westward to reach the East. In reply, 
ToscaneUi sent a copy of a letter which he had recently 




TOSCANELLI S MAP 

The original has been lost and this is from an early reproduction simplified 

written to the King of Portugal on this same subject and 
also enclosed a copy of a map. This map has been lost, 
but the one shown here is part of an early reproduction 
of it. The island called Cipango was supposed to represent 
modern Japan, which is right off the coast of Asia. In 
the letter to Columbus, ToscaneUi said, among other things, 

" I perceive your great and noble desire to go to the place where spices 
grow; wherefore in reply to a letter of yours, I send you a copy of another 
letter, which I wrote to a friend of mine a gentleman of the household of 
the most gracious king of Portugal." 

Following is part of the letter to the gentleman in the 
King's household of which ToscaneUi enclosed a copy to 
Columbus: 



Before the First Voyage 13 

"I was glad to hear of your intimacy and favor with your most noble 
and illustrious king, I have formerly spoken with you about a shorter 
route to the places of spices by ocean navigation than that which you are 
pursuing by Guinea. The most gracious king now desires from me some 
statement, or rather an exhibition to the eye, so that even the slightly edu- 
cated can grasp and comprehend that route. Although I am well aware that 
this can be proved from the spherical shape of the earth, nevertheless, in order 
to make the point clearer and to facilitate the enterprise, I have decided 
to exhibit that route by means of a sailing chart. I therefore send to his 
majesty a chart made by my own hands, upon which are laid down your 
coasts, and the islands from which you must begin to shape your course 
steadily westward, and the places at which you are bound to arrive, and 
how far from the pole or from the equator you ought to keep away, and 
through how much space or through how many miles you are to arrive at 
places most fertile in all sorts of spices and gems; and do not wonder at 
my calhng west the parts where the spices are, whereas they are commonly 
called cast, because to persons sailing persistently westward those parts 

will be found by courses on the under side of the earth 

I have drawn upon the map various places upon which you may come, 
for the better information of the navigators, in case of their arriving, whether 
through accident of wind or what not, at some different place from what 
they had expected; but partly in order that they may show the inhabitants 
that they have some knowledge of their country, which is sure to be a 
pleasant thing. It is said that none but merchants dwell in the islands.' 
For so great there is the number of navigators with their merchandise that 
in all the rest of the world there are not so many as in one very splendid 
port called Zaiton. For they say that a hundred great ships of pepper 
unload in that port every year, besides other ships bringing other spices. 
That country is very popidous and very rich, with a multitude of provinces 

and kingdoms and cities without number I had a long talk 

with him about many things, about the great size of their royal palaces 
and the remarkable length and breadth of their rivers, and the multitudes 
of cities on the banks of the rivers, such that on one river there are about 
two hundred cities, with marble bridges very long and wide and everywhere 
adorned with columns 

"From the city of Lisbon, due west there are 26 spaces marked on the 
map, each of which contains 250 miles, as far as the very great and splendid 
city of Quinsay. For it is a hundred miles in circumference and has ten 
bridges, and its name means City of Heaven, and many wonderful things 
are told about it and about the multitude of its arts and revenues. . . . 



14 The Story of Columbus 

But from the island of Antilia, which you know, to the very splendid 
island of Cipango, there are ten spaces. For that island abounds in gold, 
pearls, and precious stones, and they cover the temples and palaces with 
soHd gold. So through the unknown parts of the route, the stretches of 
sea to be traversed are not great. Many things might perhaps have been 
stated more clearly, but one who duly considers what I have said will be 
able to work out the rest for himself. Farewell, most esteemed one." 

In reply to a letter from Columbus, Toscanelli wrote: 

"I have received your letters, with the things which you sent me, for 
which I thank you very much. I regard as noble and grand your project 
of sailing from east to west according to the indications furnished by the 
map which I sent you, and which would appear still more plainly upon a 
sphere. I am much pleased to see that I have been well understood, and 
that the voyage has become not only possible but certain, fraught with 
honor as it must be, and inestimable gain, and most lofty fame among all 
Christian people 

"When that voyage shall be accomplished, it will be a voyage to powerful 
kingdoms, and to cities and provinces most wealthy and noble, abounding in 
all sorts of thingsmostdesired by us; I mean, with all kinds of spices and jewels 

in great abundance For these reasons, and many others that 

might be mentioned, I do not wonder that you, who are of great courage, and 
the whole Portuguese nation, which has always had men distinguished in all 
such enterprises, are now inflamed with desire to execute the said voyage." 

We do not know just when Columbus received these 
letters, but it was certainly more than ten years before he 
sailed on his first voyage. No doubt his belief that the 
earth was round grew stronger as the years went on. 

It was very important, indeed, for Columbus to be 
certain in his belief that the earth was round, for when he 
tried to get kings and queens and others to help him, he 
first had to tell them the wonderful stories about the riches 
of the Far East, and then show them that this Far East 
could be reached by going west. Much of the trouble 
which Columbus had in securing help came from the fact 
that those who might help him would not do so because 



Before the First Voyage 



15 




they thought the earth flat and, of course, if the earth 
was flat, the East could not be reached by saihng west. 
8. Stories of Islands in the West. — If we look at this 
map we will see that the Portuguese sailors had already 
gone a long distance out into the Atlantic. The island of 
Flores, the most westerly of the Azores, is more than one- 
third the distance from Spain to the place where Columbus 
finally found the New World. Columbus, however, be- 
lieved that there were many islands scattered all over the 
ocean. For centuries stories had been told about a wonder- 
ful island called Antilia that was supposed to be out in the 
Atlantic far beyond any of 
the islands yet discovered. 
Columbus believed that 
this island was far on the 
way toward Asia, and he 

'^ ^ TOSCANELLI S MAP REDUCED, SHOWING THE 

was confirmed in this belief ^«^^^« ^^ ^^^ Atlantic 

by the letter and the map of Toscanelh. It was his idea 
that if he got into trouble out in the open ocean, he 
could run up to this island to repair his ships or to seek 
shelter from dangerous storms. 

Many other wonderful stories were told. Sailors who 
came back from trips far out into the ocean told of lands 
that they thought they had seen ; but when others went in 
search of them, they had somehow disappeared. This led 
to the belief that there were floating islands scattered all 
over the ocean. It was also believed that there were many 
islands along the eastern coast of Asia, and it was expected 
that these would be found long before the mainland would 
be reached. One of these islands was actually known from 
the stories of Marco Polo. It was called Cipango, and 



16 



The Story of Columbus 




MAP SHOWING PORTUGUESE EXPLORATIONS ALONG THE COAST OP AFRICA 



was the island of Japan, about which Marco Polo had 
learned on his trip to China. 



Before the First Voyage 17 

9. Voyages and Discoveries of the Portuguese. — To 

understand conditions at the time we must now tell briefly 
about the voyages and discoveries of the Portuguese. 

For a century before the coming of Columbus, they had 
sailed westward into the Atlantic and south along the 
west coast of Africa. They had discovered the Azores, 
the Madeiras, and the Canaries, and, in their efforts to 
reach Asia by sea, they were gradually working their way 
down the west coast of Africa. Just before reaching 
Guinea, the coast of Africa turned towards the east and 
for a time they hoped they had reached the southern end 
of the continent. But about the time that Columbus 
came to Portugal they were discouraged by fuiding that 
the coast again turned southward. It was not until 1487, 
five years before the first voyage of Columbus, that they 
finally reached the Cape of Good Hope, the most southerly 
point of Africa. Even then they did not go on to sail 
completely around the continent, and it was ten years 
later that Da Gama finally went on across the Indian Ocean 
to India. It is known that Bartholomew, the younger 
brother of Columbus, took part in the voyage that first 
reached the Cape of Good Hope, and it is beheved that 
Columbus himself took part in some of the earlier voyages. 

10. The Voyages of the Norsemen. — Sailors from 
Norway and Denmark, who are usually called Norsemen, 
had crossed the northern end of the Atlantic and found 
America nearly five hundred years before the time of 
Columbus. Some time during the years when he lived in 
Portugal, Columbus made a voyage to the north, visiting 
England, and possibly going as far north as Iceland. 
Some writers of history have believed that in talking with 

2 



18 The Story of Columbus 

the people of England or Iceland, Columbus heard stories 
about the land that these Norsemen had found far to the 
west. If he heard such stories, it is certain that they did 
not lead him to try to find the land that the Norsemen 
had found. It was believed at that time that all the 
lands found by the Norsemen in going westward across 
the northern part of the Atlantic were connected in the 
north with Europe. Columbus wanted to go to the 
Indies and he believed that they lay far to the south of 
the lands which the Norsemen had discovered. As we 
shall find, when Columbus left Spain he sailed to the 
southwest instead of to the northwest. We may be 
certain, therefore, that he did not get any ideas from the 
stories of the Norse voyages which helped him to decide 
to reach Asia by sailing westward. Indeed, it is very 
doubtful whether he ever heard of these voyages at all, 
for he never mentions them in any of his writings which 
have come down to us. 

II. The Size of the Earth. — Columbus thought that 
the earth was really much smaller than it is, and so he 
believed that the distance from Spain to Eastern Asia 
was only about three thousand miles. We now know that 
if there had been no land in the way, so that Columbus 
could have sailed to Eastern Asia in a straight line, he 
would have had to go about three times as far as he 
actually did. Some geographers of that time believed that 
the distance was even less than three thousand miles, and at 
times when Columbus was very anxious to get help he 
spoke of Asia as bordering up against the coast of Africa. 

At that time there was a general belief that only about 
one-sixth of the earth's surface was covered with water 



Before the First Voyage 19 

and that the other five-sixths were land. For this reason 
the maps of that time showed large areas of land and small 
seas. We now know that only about one-fourth of the 
earth's surface is land and that the other three-fourths 
are covered with water. If Columbus had really known 
how large the earth is and that he would have had to sail 
nine thousand miles before he could reach Asia, it is verj- 
likely that he would not have dared to start on his voyage. 
Of course, in those days nobody even dreamed of a large 
continent lying between Europe and Asia. 

12. Summary of Columbus's Beliefs. — We have now 
seen that Columbus believed the stories of the wonderful 
riches of the Far East; that he believed the earth to be 
round; that he thought the size of the earth was much 
less than it really is, so that the distance from Spain to 
Asia would be only about three thousand miles. He 
believed that there were very many islands scattered all 
over the Atlantic and he expected to discover some of these 
before he actually reached Asia. In only one of these 
behefs was he right, namely, that the earth is round. It 
is surely interesting that every one of his mistaken notions 
was a good reason why he should go across the Atlantic. 
Thus all his mistakes made him more determined to go 
and made it easier for him to get the help which he needed 
both in ships and in crews. If Columbus and those who 
helped him had known the facts he would never have 
crossed the Atlantic and found America. 

13. Columbus as a Sailor. — To sail westward across 
the Atlantic for the purpose of reaching Asia, it was by 
no means enough that Columbus should believe the earth 
to be round and the distance to be much less than it was. 



20 The Story of Columbus 

It was necessary for him to be a very good seaman. He 
needed to have the courage to go far out into the unknown 
ocean. He needed to be able to command other men, and 
he had to have the earnest desire to go, which would make 
him disregard all the dangers that he might meet. 

His life among the Portuguese had helped very much 
to develop these quahties in him. No doubt he sailed on 
many of their voyages, he took part in long journeys into 
unknown seas, and he learned from the Portuguese sailors 
the art of handling ships and of finding his location at sea. 
We shall learn later that he was one of the very best sailors 
of his time. It happened repeatedly that no one else in 
his crews knew where they were, but seldom, if ever, did 
Columbus miss his bearings. It is interesting to note the 
combination of qualities which were needed for the under- 
taking of Columbus. He needed to know the best science 
of his time, to be informed on all that the best geographers 
could teach, and besides that he had to be a rough-and- 
ready, practical seaman who was willing to brave all the 
dangers of unknown oceans. 

We shall see that still other qualities were needed. 
It required remarkable personal qualities to go on for 
many years seeking the help he needed and to strive to 
convince people that his plans could be carried out. 

14. Columbus Tried to Get Help From the King of 
Portugal. — To undertake such a voyage as Columbus 
wanted to make it was necessary to have good ships, and 
crews brave enough to start out on a long and dangerous 
journey. Good ships cost a great deal of money, and 
sailors to go on them had to be paid wages. Columbus 
was poor and had to seek help from some one else. In 



Before the First Voyage 21 

those days, it was usual for kings to send out ships to 
search for new lands. Since the Portuguese were the 
greatest explorers of that time, it was natural that Colum- 
bus should go to the King of Portugal, to explain what he 
wanted to do and to ask for help. The King, however, 
soon learned that Columbus not only wanted help in ships 
and money, but that he also wanted to get for himself a 
large share of the riches to be obtained from the lands that 
he might find. Columbus also wanted the King to promise 
that he should be viceroy or governor of all the new lands 
that he might discover. In those days when a king fitted 
out ships to discover new lands, it was customary that 
the lands thus found, and whatsoever could be made by 
trading with them or by stealing their wealth, all belonged 
to the king. So the demands of Columbus appeared very 
unusual and the King refused to give him any help. 

The King of Portugal thought, however, that it might 
be worth while to test the ideas of Columbus. So he sent 
some ships to carry goods to the Cape Verde Islands and 
gave them instructions to go from there westward into the 
Atlantic, to search for the land that Columbus had told 
about. This shows that if Columbus had not wanted 
much more than others who went out on such journeys, 
he would have received help long before he did and his 
voyages could have begun many years before he actu- 
ally got started. 

There are stories that at this time Columbus tried to 
get help from his own city of Genoa, in Italy, and also 
from one other place in Italy; but if he tried he certainly 
failed. We are not at all certain, however, that either of 
these stories is true. 



22 



The Story of Colxjmbus 



15. Columbus Leaving Portugal for Spain. — When 
Columbus found that the king of Portugal would not give 
him the help that he wanted and at the same time promise 
him all that he demanded, he decided to go to Spain, to 
try to get the King and Queen of Spain to help him. He 
believed that they might be willing to do so because he 
knew that Spain was now anxious to discover new lands. 
For many years the Portuguese had done more exploring 

than any other people in 
Europe, but Spain was now 
rapidly becoming more 
powerful, and it seemed 
reasonable to Columbus 
that the Spaniards might 
be anxious to get the trade 
of the East and so get 
ahead of their old rivals. 




MAP OF ARAGON, CASTILE AND MOORISH SPAIN 



It was in Spain that Co- 
lumbus at last got his 
ships and his men, but it took him eight years to get them. 
16. Spain When Columbus Came There. — To under- 
stand the trouble which Columbus had in getting help 
from Spain, we must now tell something about that 
country as it was at the time of Columbus. More than 
seven hundred years earher, a people called the Moors 
had crossed over from northern Africa, taken much of the 
land, and made their homes there. These Moors were a 
very remarkable people. At a time when the streets of 
London were unpaved, with footpaths winding among 
puddles of filth in which hogs were wallowing, the streets 
of Cordova and Seville were beautifully paved. While 



Before the First Voyage 23 

the nobles and princes of England found their way at 
night by means of lanterns made of animal membranes 
stretched over wooden frames and little tallow candles 
placed inside them, the Moors walked through the well- 
lighted streets of their proud cities. They built great 
schools and universities and erected wonderful churches 
and palaces. Indeed, the Moors were the most highly 
civihzed people of their time. But the Spaniards always 

F • 1 




THE CONVENT OF LA RABIDA, IN PALOS, WHERE COLUMBUS RESTED FROM TliME TO TIME 

WHILE IN SPAIN 

hated them because the Moors had driven them out of a 
part of their own land. 

If you will look at the map of Spain given here, you 
will see the part which the Moors conquered and you will 
also see the part of Africa from which they came. You 
will see that the rest of Spain was divided into two great 
parts called Aragon and Castile. Ferdinand, the King of 
Aragon, had married Isabella, the Queen of Castile. In 
this way Aragon and Castile were united. When Colum- 
bus came to Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella 
were carrying on a great war against the Moors. 

17. Columbus in Spain. — It was by no means easy for 
a poor stranger like Columbus to get permission even to 



24 



The Story of Columbus 



come to the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella. This would 
be difficult enough in ordinary times, and was especially 
so now when the attention of the King and Queen was 
wholly taken up by the great war. Columbus first sought 
the acquaintance of some of the great men of Spain, and 
it was by their help that he was finally permitted to appear 
at the Court. After some years he was engaged in the 
service of the Court and received a small sum of money 




COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COURT AT SALAMANCA 



yearly. The King and Queen, however, were too busy to 
listen to his plans and they asked a number of learned men 
to decide what should be done. Some of these men really 
believed that Columbus might be right, while others de- 
clared he was a wild dreamer. So years .went by without 
anything being done. In the meantime, Bartholomew, 
the younger brother of Columbus, returned from the 
voyage on which the southern end of Africa had been 
found. This expedition made him fear that the Portuguese 
would be the first to reach the East by an all-sea route and 



Before the First Voyage 



25 



so he hurried Bartholomew to England to seek help. He 
also tried to get some of the rich nobles of Spain to furnish 
ships and men, and they would have done so had not the 
Queen objected. She did not wish anyone except herself 
or the King to send out such an expedition. 




FERDINAND OP ARAGON 



During all these years Columbus talked about his 
plans to all who would listen, and he succeeded in getting 
many to beheve in them. This was important, for the 
King and Queen would not be likely to furnish ships and 
men for such a voyage without the advice of the wisest 
and most learned men of their kingdom. 

In the first months of the year 1492, after the war 
against the Moors had been finished, the King and Queen 



26 The Story of Columbus 

decided to send Columbus on his voyage. Trouble started, 
however, when they found what Columbus wanted. In 
spite of years of poverty and waiting, he made exactly the 
same demands of the Ejng and Queen of Spain that he 
had made eight years earlier of the King of Portugal. 
He still wanted to be viceroy of all lands he might discover. 
He wanted the promise of large incomes of money and other 
things which it was difficult even for a king and queen to 
grant. But Columbus was fixed in his ideas as to what he 
should have, and the result was that all help was refused him. 
1 8. Columbus Starting for France. — Colimibus now 
decided to go to France. Alone, riding a mule, he started 
on his way. There were many people at the Court, how- 
ever, who believed in his stories and plans, and it hurt 
their pride to think that all these wonderful things might 
go to France just because Spain would not risk a small 
amount of money. These people went to the Queen. 
For some time it had been noted that the King was not 
as willing to listen to the plans of Columbus as was the 
Queen, and so they went to her instead of to the King. 
They told her again the stories which Columbus had told 
of the wonderful riches of the East; they told her that 
Columbus was really right and that if she would send him 
out, the Spanish Court would be the richest in the world. 
The result was that the Queen decided to help Columbus. 
She said that she would get the money from Castile and 
that Aragon should have no part in this expedition. So 
it happened that a messenger was sent in all haste to over- 
take Columbus. He found him a long way from the Court, 
riding his lone mule. The messenger stopped him and 
told him that the Queen wanted him to return. Columbus 



Before the First Voyage 27 

was uncertain and thought that probably when the tune 
really came they would again refuse him help. Neverthe- 
less, he turned his mule around and went back to the 
Spanish Court. The story has been told that the Queen 



<^ 



ISABELLA UF CASTILE 



pawned her jewels to get the money with which to fit 
out the ships. This is now known not to be true. It is 
pretty certain, however, that all the expense was borne 
by Castile. We shall learn a little later that the ships 
were provided in another way; that is, the Queen was not 
obliged to buy the ships nor to build them. 



28 The Story of Columbus 

19. What the King and Queen Promised Columbus. — 

While the Queen provided the necessary money, the King 
joined her in the promises which were made to Columbus. 
The most important of these were : 

1. That Columbus should be viceroy of all the lands which he might 
discover, and that his son, and his son's son and some member of his family 
forever after him should be viceroy of these lands. 

2. That he should be Judge and Admiral of all the lands and islands 
he might discover. 

3. That he himself should receive one-tenth of all the valuable goods, 
all the gold and silver and pearls, and all things whatsoever which should be 
gotten from these lands, after the cost of obtaining them had been deducted. 

This last promise would have made Columbus very 
wealthy if he had found the rich lands that he expected 
to find. We must be sure to understand just what this 
promise meant. Any people who were to trade with 
these lands would have to give Columbus one-tenth of 
all the profits they made, and anybody who might go 
over and rob those people would have to give him one- 
tenth of what they took. 

There were other promises too, but these were the most 
important ones. For many hundreds of years, both before 
and after Columbus, a great many ships had gone out into 
the ocean to find new land, but no one had ever received 
a promise of the kind that Columbus received. It was 
really a promise which not even a king and a queen could 
carry out in the long run. It is remarkable that this poor 
man, a foreigner born in Genoa, who had lived a few 
years in Portugal, should come to the Court of Spain 
and be able to get the King and the Queen to make him 
such a promise. It is the same kind of promise that he 
tried to get from the King of Portugal and which that King 



Before the First Voyage 29 

refused to make. It was because of that refusal that 
Columbus left Portugal for Spain, and he had once left 
the Court of Spain to go to France just because the 
King and Queen had in the first place refused to grant 
his demands. 

The one thing that Columbus wanted above every- 
thing else was riches and glory for himself. We shall see 
later in this story that his endeavor to become rich gave 
him more suffering and pain and caused him more trouble 
than all the other things of his life. Had he been satisfied 
to go out as other great sailors had done, to find new lands, 
and to receive what was naturally given to people who 
work mainly for their country, he would have been much 
wealthier in the end. Had he not been so grasping he 
probably could have started on his first voyage eight 
years earlier. 

When Columbus really discovered the new world he 
found but little gold or other riches, and he died poor 
and lonely and almost forgotten. 

20. How the Ships Were Provided. — The story has 
been told that Queen Isabella bought the ships. This 
story, however, is not true, and the way that the ships 
really were obtained was as follows. 

The people of the little town of Palos had done some- 
thing to displease the King and Queen, and it had been 
decided to fine the town by making the people furnish two 
ships and crews for the time of twelve months. When it 
was decided to help Columbus, an order was made out at 
the Court, commanding Palos to prepare two ships, to 
provide crews, and to let Columbus take them for his 
proposed voyage. 



30 The Story of Columbus 

The sailors on these vessels were to be paid the same 
as sailors on warships, which was more than ordinary 
sailors received, and were to be given four months' pay 
in advance, at the time of starting on the voyage. Any 
one who might be under arrest or in jail was to be allowed 
to become a member of the crews, and nothing was to be 
done with him until two months after his return. It will 
thus be seen that any criminal in the town of Palos — a 
thief or a murderer — might avoid being put into prison 
or escape being executed for a certain length of time 
simply by going on the voyage of Columbus. 

The to^vn of Palos was required to furnish only two 
vessels. Columbus, however, was allowed to get another 
vessel if he could, making three in all. This he finally did 
by the help of two brothers, who were old seamen and who 
had considerable money. The name of these men was 
Pinzon. The vessel which was provided by the Pinzons 
was the largest of the three and was used by Columbus 
as his flagship. We will describe these ships a httle later. 

21. Difficulty in Getting Crews.^ — It was very hard, 
indeed, to get seamen to go on this voyage. Everybody 
was afraid of the great dangers which were believed to be 
lurking in the far ocean. Even emptying the jail of Palos 
did not furnish enough men for the crews. So Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella gave an order to impress seamen. To 
'impress" seamen means simply to take them, whether 
they want to go or not, and make them go. It was found 
difficult even to impress seamen, and it looked for a while 
as though the whole plan would fail because of lack of 
sailors. At that time the two Pinzon brothers, the ones 
who had helped Columbus to get the third ship, offered 



Before the First Voyage 31 

to go. They were well-known seamen, and other people 
thought that if they were willmg to go, the voyage might 
not be so very dangerous after all, and so the crews were 
finally gotten together. 

22. How the Money was Really Provided. — About 
one-third of the money necessary for the expenses of the 
voyage was provided by Columbus himself, with the help 
of the Pinzons. The other two- thirds, or just a little more 
than that, was provided by Queen Isabella from the in- 
come of Castile. The little town of Palos had, of course, 
to provide the two ships and to pay their crews. 



CHAPTER II 




-^=^ 



The First Voyage 
23. The Ships of Columbus. — Columbus thus finally 
obtained three ships, the Santa Maria, the Nina, and the 
Pinta. The town of Palos provided the Nina and the 
Pinta, and some friends of Columbus, the Pinzons, helped 
him to secure the Santa Maria. The Nina and the Pinta 
were sailing vessels of the kind called caravels, which 

were much used in those days 
to carry armed men. These 
ships were open in the middle 
but built-over at both ends. 
That is, in each end there 
were small rooms where the 
crew and the captain lived. 
They were fast sailers and 
with a good wind could make 
as high as twelve miles an 
hour. This would make one 
mile in five minutes, and it 
takes a fairly fast runner to 
go at that rate for a whole mile. The Nina was a little 
smaller than the Pinta. 

The third ship, the Santa Maria, was larger and 
heavier, and had a deck extending over her full length. 
This kind of ship was called a carack and was ordinarily 
used for carrying merchandise. Columbus complained 
that the Santa Maria was a dull sailer and not well suited 
for his purposes. The ships of Columbus were very small 
32 



SHIP OP 1486 



The First Voyage 



33 



when compared with the ships that sail the ocean to-day. 
It has been figured out that the Santa Maria was sixty- 
three feet long on the deck, twenty feet wide, and about 
ten and one-half feet deep. If fourteen ships of her size 




SHIP OF FIFTEENTH CENTUKY 



were placed end to end they would not all together be as 
long as the Lusitania. The Santa Maria was less than 
twice as long as an ordinary school room, and somewhat 
narrower. You will find that your school room is more 
than ten and one-half feet high, which was the distance 
from the deck to the bottom of the Santa Maria, 

3 



34 



The Story of Columbus 



24. What Columbus Expected to Find.— Columbus 
believed that by sailing about three thousand miles west- 




MAP DRAWN FROM BEHAIM's GLOBE 



ward he would reach the eastern coast of Asia. He also 
believed that between Europe and Asia there were many 



The First Voyage 



35 



islands which had not yet been discovered, and he expected 
to find some of those on his trip across. But after leaving 




MAP DRAWN FROM BEHAIM S GLOBE 



the Canary Islands, which were already known, he did 
not see land until he reached the West Indies. 



36 The Story of Columbus 

The map on pages 34 and 35 is from a globe made in the 
year 1490, just two years before Columbus sailed. It was 
made by a man who up to that time had lived in Portugal 
and who therefore had the same ideas about the shape of 
the earth and the nearness of Europe to Asia that the 
learned men of Portugal had at that time. Columbus 
had not seen this globe before he started on his voyage, 
because it was made in a German city and did not reach 
Spain in time. But it represented the most advanced 
ideas about geography and we may well believe that it 
shows fairly well what Columbus had in mind. 

Columbus must have taken maps with him, but it is 
not known just what they were. Since he himself was an 
expert map maker it is very likely that he carried maps 
of his own construction. For more than ten years he had 
been making plans for this journey, and he had no doubt 
made sailing charts and maps of the regions he proposed 
to visit. No doubt, too, he showed these maps and charts 
to people whose help he was trying to secure. Naturally, 
such maps would be taken on the voyage. We have no 
sure proof as to any of these things, and we can only believe 
that the map given here shows fairly well the nature of 
the maps and charts which he carried. 

25. Starting on the Voyage. — When they were finally 
ready for the voyage, the ships lay in the mouth of a 
small river that flowed into the harbor of Palos. About 
a half hour before sunrise, on the morning of August third, 
1492, the anchors were lifted, the sails were spread, and 
the little ships headed towards the sea. Columbus de- 
cided to make a complete history of his journey and keep 
a daily record of all interesting events. A book in which 



The First Voyage 37 

such a record is kept is called a journal and we will refer 
to the one kept by Columbus as the Journal. While the 
original Journal has been lost, we have early copies of it 
which are believed to be fairly accurate. It is from this 
Journal that we have most of our information about this 
remarkable and important voyage. Columbus also de- 
cided to make a map of the countries that he might dis- 
cover and to make a chart showing the exact track of his 
vessels across the ocean. It is interesting to notice that 
it took seventy days from the time the ships sailed from 
Palos until they reached the West Indies, which shows 
an average speed of about forty-five miles per day. The 
Lusitania, going at her best speed, would have made this 
distance in just a few hours more than five days. Colum- 
bus headed his ships for a group of islands called the 
Canaries, which are about one thousand miles from Spain. 

26. The Appearance of Columbus. — We do not know 
that a picture of Columbus was ever painted while he 
lived. We give here two of the earliest pictures of him, 
and they are so different that both of them cannot be 
good likenesses of the real man. 

We learn from the writings of those who knew him 
that he was tall and strong, with flowing white hair and 
keen gray eyes. He was friendly and polite, and people 
were charmed by his conversation. Even those who 
opposed him felt respect for him, for he had an air of 
authority. He was full of enthusiasm for his own plans, 
and felt that they would not only bring him great wealth 
and fame but would be the means of carrying the Christian 
religion to millions of heathens. In his later years he 
wished people to think he was of noble family, although 



38 The Story of Columbus 

we know his father was a poor weaver. He even changed 
his name from Columbus (Colombo in Italian) to Colon, 




which was the name of a great French admiral. Nowa- 
days we often find that great men whose parents were poor 



The First Voyage 



39 



are proud of their rise in life and that they refer with 
much pride to the humble conditions from which they came. 
Columbus seems to have been ashamed of his origin. 







27. The Voyage to the Canaries. — There was no diffi- 
culty in reaching the Canaries. Ships had sailed from 
Spain and from Portugal to these islands time and again, 
and no good seaman had any doubt about this part of the 



40 The Story of Columbus 

voyage. At the Canaries the Nina had to stop to change 
her sails. The Pinta had begun to leak and had to be 
repaired; her rudder, or steering gear, had been damaged 
on the way down and that also had to be fixed. 

While passing one of the Canary Islands, the Tenerife, 
they saw a volcano in eruption. Stories have been told 
of the great fear which the sailors had of this volcano, 
but there is no good reason for believing them. There 
were many volcanoes in the waters where these sailors were 
used to going and they no doubt had seen them in action 
before. People who have written about Columbus have 
often told stories, the truth of which no one knows. Indeed, 
they have liked to tell exciting tales about his journeys. 
We always need to be careful in reading about great 
men to be sure that there is good reason for believing 
what is told about them. 

The island at which they stopped last is called Gomera. 
Here they took on board wood, water, and food. At this 
place they also met people from the Island of Ferro, which 
is the farthest west among the Canaries. These people 
told of islands farther out in the Atlantic. Such stories 
are not surprising. We shall see that several times on 
this voyage Columbus and his men thought they saw 
land only to find a little later that they were mistaken. 

28. Sailing the Unknown Ocean. — On Thursday morn- 
ing, September sixth, Columbus and his crews left Gomera 
and started out over the open ocean. Before starting on 
the journey Columbus had predicted that land would be 
reached by sailing three thousand miles or less from Spain. 
He feared, however, that they might have to go farther, 
so he decided to deceive his men. When they had sailed 



The First Voyage 



41 



about one hundred and eighty miles he told them that 
they had gone only about one hundred and forty miles. 
In this way he hoped to be able to make them believe that 
they were not as far from home as they really were. When 
they reached the West Indies the crews were made to 



palmaI 



cfi, 



FUERTEVENTURA 



GRAND 
CANARY 



16° 




THE CANARIES 



believe they had gone several hundred miles less than 
they really had. 

There were many things which made them fearful 
out in this vast ocean where no one had ever gone before 
but which imagination had infested with countless dangers. 
The long days and nights gave the superstitious sailors 
plenty of time to think about the great monsters which 
they had heard inhabited the Sea of Darkness. The wind 
was blowing constantly to the westward, and they feared 
it would be difficult to sail back against it. Would they 
sail over the edge of the earth and never be able to return? 



42 



The Story of Columbus 



We shall see in the next section that the compass behaved 
in a way to alarm them. It was really a wonder that 
Columbus could persuade these crews to go on straight 
westward for over thirty days. 

29. The Compass. — At the time of Columbus, sailors 
used the compass to show the direction in which they 
were going. In all the seas known at that time the needle 
pointed not quite north, but a little to the west of north. 




^^^W^4^ 



OUTLINE MAP OF FIRST OUTWARD VOYAGE 



It was known that by going westward the compass needle 
would point more nearly to the north. But no one had 
heard of a place where it pointed exactly north,, or even 
somewhat to the east of north. The map here shows very 
nearly the direction in which the needle pointed at the 
various parts of Columbus' voyage. When they got out 
a certain distance, they found that it pointed straight 
north, and when they got a little farther it began to point 
a little to the east of north. This they could not explain, 
and to keep the crew from getting too much worried about 



The Fiest Voyage 



43 



this matter, Columbus told them that it wasn't the com- 
pass which had gone wrong, but that the North Star had 
changed its location. As the voyage proceeded, the com- 
pass, of course, pointed more and more to the east, and 
Columbus kept on explaining this by saying that the North 
Star had moved more and more out of its proper place. 
Columbus did not really believe this, but he thought it 




MAP SHOWING DEVIATION OP THE COMPASS 

It is supposed that the needle pointed farther to the east in the time of Columbus than 

it does now, but just how much no one knows. This map gives a general idea of the 

way it pointed at that time. 

would be less likely to scare the men than if he told them 
that the compass had begun to point in a direction where 
it never pointed before. He thought it might make them 
believe that the compass would be of little use in finding 
their way out in this part of the ocean. 

30. Birds at Sea. — Birds were seen almost every day 
of the voyage. Columbus remarked in his journal several 
times that birds would not go more than about sixty miles 
from land, therefore there must be land at least that near. 



44 The Story of Columbus 

We now know, however, that many birds go much farther 
from land than Columbus supposed. Once he remarked 
that he knew there must be land close by, but that 
they would not stop to find it now as they could look 
it up when they returned. The Portuguese were often 
believed to have found land by following in the direc- 
tion in which the birds were flying, and that made 
Columbus more certain that the birds belonged to some 
land nearby. Sometimes they thought they saw flocks 
of land birds in the evening, but they never could see 
them in the*full light of day. Of course, they did not 
really see such birds, but only thought they did. No 
doubt the belief that land was near though they did not 
see it made them feel safer than they would have felt if 
they had known that there was no land within hundreds 
of miles. 

31. The Sargasso Sea. — From September sixteenth to 
October third the ships sailed through great bodies of 
seaweed. These weeds were very heavy, perhaps as thick 
around as one's thumb, and very long. There were great 
masses of these weeds. Stories have been told that the 
sailors became much worried about them; they thought 
they would be entangled so badly in them that they 
could not get out; but there is no reason to beheve these 
tales. Columbus says nothing about such fears in his 
Journal, and we must believe that the stories were invented 
by those who like to have exciting tales to tell. The weeds 
were thought to be river weeds, or at least to come from 
some land nearby, and to indicate that they were sailing 
close to islands or lands which, however, they did not see. 
On September twenty-second they even changed their 



The First Voyage 



45 



direction in order to try to get out of the weeds, and they 
really did so for a short time. 

We now know that there is a place in the Atlantic 
called the Sargasso Sea, where a great many weeds have 
been collected and are floating out in the middle of the 
ocean. These weeds are gathered here by great currents 
which go in a circle and thus keep them in a sort of eddy 
such as we often see in a river, w^here bits of wood may be 




MAP SHOWING SAEGASSO SEA 



seen floating around in the same place for a long time. 
Columbus, of course, knew nothing about all this and 
thought they came from nearby land. Fortunately he 
did not lose time by searching for these lands. To sail 
west and thus to reach Asia was the guiding star of Colum- 
bus. His straight path across the ocean shows this more 
clearly than anything else. With slight exceptions, he laid 
his course as true to the westward as does the modern liner. 
32. Story of the Voyage from the Canaries to the West 
Indies. — The first three days were calm and the ships 



46 



The Story of Columbus 



moved slowly. On September thirteenth, when they had 
been sailing just one week after leaving Gomera, they were 
about two hundred miles west of the Azores, which were 
the islands farthest west in the Atlantic which were 
known at that time. 

On September fourteenth they saw what they thought 
were land birds and they believed they were within, a 
short distance from land. On Saturday, the fifteenth, 




DETAILED MAP OP FIRST OUTWARD JOURNEY 

they saw a bolt of fire shoot into the ocean. This, no 
doubt, was a shooting star or a meteor. On September 
sixteenth they entered the Sargasso Sea, about which we 
have just read. On September seventeenth they believed 
they saw other land birds, which, as Columbus remarked 
in his Journal, do not sleep on the sea. They were now 
sure they were near land, and the Pinta, which was the 
fastest sailer, started ahead to see land first. They also 
thought they saw flocks of birds in the west. There were 
heavy clouds, which they thought were sure signs of land. 



The First Voyage 



47 



On the nineteenth, the wind was against them, and they 
drifted somewhat toward the north, as can be seen on the 
map. Columbus remarked he was glad they ran into this 
head wind, because that showed that sometimes, at least, 
the wind blew eastward and that therefore it would not 
be so difficult to get back. On the twentieth two pelicans 
came on board, and again he remarked that these birds 
sleep on shore and go to sea in the morning. Hence they 




DETAILED MAP OF FIRST OUTWARD JOURNEY 

could not be far from land. On the twenty-second of 
September they saw a whale, and this they believed to 
be a sign that they were nearing land. Anyone who has 
crossed the Atlantic knows, of course, that the whale goes 
anywhere in the ocean. 

On the twenty-second they changed their course again 
and headed still farther to the north, trying to get away 
from the weeds, which were very thick. 

On the twenty-third and twenty-fourth there was no 
wind and the ships drifted with the current. 



48 



The Story of Columbus 



50^ 


SEPT. 24 SEPT- 23 


40^ 
IP 

40 r 


y^^'^ %^ ""^ 


.0^ 





MAP OF DRIFTING FROM SEPTEMBER 19tH TO 
SEPTEMBER 26tH 



On the evening of the twenty-fifth they were certain 
they saw land in the southwest, and sailed in that direction 
to find it. In the morning of the next day, however, they 
discovered that what they had seen was only clouds and 
there was no land. 

They now sailed straight west for twelve days. On Octo- 
ber third they thought 
they saw branches with 
fruit among the weeds. 
On October sixth the Pin- 
zon brothers began to urge 
that they sail on a more 
southerly course, as they 
believed that the land was 
in that direction. Columbus, however, persisted in sailing 
westward. On Sunday, October seventh, the Nina, which 
was in the lead, fired a gun and raised a flag to show that 
they had sighted land. Again they found they were mis- 
taken. However, towards evening of that same day 
Columbus decided to go in a more southerly direction, as 
urged by the Pinzon brothers. Great flocks of birds were 
now seen flying southwestward, and again they thought of 
the stories of the Portuguese finding land by following birds. 
They were now two hundred miles farther west than 
the distance which Columbus had said would take them 
to Cipango — the island of Japan. 

On October eighth they saw land birds flying along 
the course of the ships. On the tenth Columbus wrote 
in his Journal that the crews were becoming very much 
worried and he encouraged them as best he could. He 
told them they could not now be far from land, that it 



The First Voyage 



49 



would be too bad to turn around after they had gone so 
far, and that if they only kept on they would reach Asia 
and that all of them would be very rich. He also spoke 
about what the King and Queen would think of men who 
had gone so far and would turn around without going 
just a little farther. 

On October eleventh there was a very rough sea, and 
we may imagine how the little ships were tossed about 




OUTLINE MAP OF FIRST VOTAGE, SHOWING MAIN DATES 



in it. However, there were now real signs that land was 
near. They saw logs floating in the water, and they even 
thought they saw a stick of wood which had been carved 
with a knife. They saw green bushes, and stalks of the 
rosemary, and bits of cane. There was no doubt that land 
was near, and they changed their course to the west. At 
two o'clock in the morning of October twelfth, land was 
seen. The great voyage was over! It was now thirty-six 
days since they left the Canary Islands. They had found 
nothing unusual. The sea was the same kind of sea as 
4 



50 The Story of Columbus 

at home. The wind and the waves were the same as 
those they had been used to. They had found none of 
the horrible things which people believed were out in the 
great ocean. Indeed, nothing strange had happened on 
the journey. Longer voyages had frequently been made 
from Portugal. The only unusual thing about this voyage 
was that they had sailed out into the great ocean, straight 
toward the west, about two thousand miles farther than, 
any ship had ever sailed, so far as they knew. 

When they were sure that they saw land, the ships 
were turned around to avoid running ashore in the dark- 
ness. No doubt Columbus slept little that night. For 
more than ten years, possibly for nearly twienty years, 
he had been hoping some day to sail west to find land. 
Now he had sailed west just about the distance that he 
expected to sail to find the great continent of Asia. There 
the land lay before him, and he had no doubt but that it 
was Asia itself or one of the islands which he believed to 
be lying out in the sea near that continent. The moon 
was three-quarters full, and in its light, three thousand 
miles west of Europe, those little ships lay with their prows 
turned to the wind, their crews waiting for the morning, 
when they would head for the shore to see what they had 
really found. We must not forget that this voyage was 
one of the very greatest things ever accomplished by any- 
one. Columbus and his men knew that well. But Colum- 
bus had one fear. For many years he had hoped to become 
rich and great through such a voyage. To those who sent 
him he had held out prospects of glory and power sufficient 
to make them unrivaled among the kings of the earth, 
and what he had reserved for himself was enough to make 



The First Voyage 51 

him richer and more powerful than any save his King and 
Queen. Would he find the riches? Was this indeed the 
land where bridges were built of costly stones, and where 
the people were so weak that he could easily make himself 
their master? We may well believe that he passed an 
anxious and restless night. 

33. The Story of the Light. — Anyone who has read 
anything at all about the voyage of Columbus has read 
the story that in the evening of October eleventh, standing 
in the prow of his ship and peering into the darkness, he 
saw a light, and that this light was the first real sign of 
land that was seen. It would be more pleasant not to tell 
the story about this fight, but those who write about men 
who have made history should tell the whole truth. The 
story goes that Columbus saw the fight, or thought he 
saw it, and that he spoke to one of his men about it and 
that this man, who was not much more than a slave, said 
he thought he saw it too. Columbus also spoke to one 
other man in a different part of the ship about it, but this 
man could not see it. Columbus further said that he saw 
the fight a little later and that it moved up and down. 
This was between ten and eleven o'clock at night. We 
know now that at the rate at which they were sailing they 
were at least thirty miles from the land which they really 
saw at two o'clock in the morning. Hence Columbus 
could not possibly have seen a light on shore, because 
there could not have been a light powerful enough to be 
seen even ten miles away, let alone thirty miles. Further, 
to be visible that far the light must have been elevated 
more than 600 feet above the water, and Columbus himself 
describes this land as low and flat. We must tell the rest 



52 The Story of Columbus 

of the story. The King and the Queen had promised to 
give a sum of money every year for hfe to that one of the 
crew who should see land first. The sum of money was 
not great — about sixty dollars a year — but money was 
worth much more then than it is now, and taking it all 
in all it was a very considerable sum for a poor sailor. 
The man who really saw land first was a sailor on the 
Pinta, by name Roderigo de Triana. The Pinta fired the 
gun to let the rest of the ships know that this time they 
really saw land. As soon as this gun was fired, the ship 
turned about and lay still for the night. 

It seems that if Columbus saw the light, as he says he 
did, at ten or eleven o'clock that night, he would not have 
gone on sailing straight for it if he saw it ahead, and if he 
saw it on either side of the vessel he would surely not have 
gone on, but would have stopped so as to see the land in 
the morning. If he really saw the light ahead, he would 
have known by the next morning that the light could not 
have been on the land now lying before them, since that 
was too far away from the place where he saw it. 

On their return to Spain, Roderigo claimed the reward 
for seeing land first, but Columbus denied that he should 
have it and claimed it for himself because he had seen a 
light four hours before Roderigo really saw the land. 
The reward was given to Columbus and the story goes that 
Roderigo was so disgusted with Christian justice that he 
turned Mohammedan. So, the great admiral — the man 
who was to be the viceroy of all the lands that he should 
discover — kept for himself the money which would be of 
little importance to a rich man, but which would amount 
to a great deal for a poor sailor. To say the least, there 



The First Voyage 



53 



was grave doubt that Columbus really saw land first, 
and it would seem that a great and generous man would 
have allowed a poor sailor to get his reward and would 




MAP SHOWING ISLANDS WHERE COLUMBUS MAY HAVE LANDED 



not have taken it for himself. But this was not the 
way of Columbus. 

34. Where Did Columbus Land? — It is not known 
with absolute certainty which one of the islands in the 
West Indies Columbus saw first. On the map in this page 
you will see Cat Island, Watlings Island, Samana, Acklin 



54 



The Story of Columbus 



Island, Mariguana, and Grand Turk Island. At one time 
or another each one of these has been supposed to be the 
place on which Columbus landed. It is now fairly certain, 
however, that he actually did land on Watlings Island. 
Columbus himself said that the island was low, that there 

was a large lagoon or lake in its 
interior, that it bore green trees, 
and many different kinds of fruit. 
Watlings Island seems to be the 
only one which answers this de- 
scription completely. 

35. Course Among the 
Islands. — The course along which 
it is believed Columbus sailed 
among the islands is shown on 
the map (see page 61). 

The first island, which we now 
believe was Watlings Island, he 
named San Salvador, or ''Holy 
^ Savior." The next island of con- 
siderable size which he discovered 
he named Fernandina, after the King of Spain, and the next 
considerable island he named Isabella, after the Queen of 
Spain. Cuba he named Juana, after the Crown Prince 
of Spain, and Haiti (Hispaniola) was named after Spain 
herself. They left the eastern end of Haiti on January 
tenth and saw that island for the last time on the sixteenth 
of January. We thus see that Columbus and his men 
spent three months among these islands. By looking at 
a map of America, we will see that, after all, Columbus 
saw very Httle of it on his first journey, and we may 




MAP OF WATLINGS ISLAND 



The First Voyage 55 

wonder why he did not stay longer and explore more of it; 
but we may be certain that he was anxious to get back home 
to tell the wonderful story of the land actually discovered 
away out in the ocean three thousand miles from Europe. 
We will now learn something about what Columbus did 
during the three months that he spent among these islands. 
36. Character of Natives. — The people that Columbus 
found when he landed in the West Indies were different 
from any that had been seen by the people of Europe 
before that time. He called them Indians because he 
thought they were natives of India, and that name has 
since been applied to all the natives of America. Colum- 
bus says that the natives of the first island where he landed 
were simple and timid but friendly. They would run at 
the least provocation, but return again when friendliness 
was shown them. The natives of Haiti, however, were 
stout and brave, and different in many ways from those 
of the islands farther north. We shall find later that the 
natives of the islands still farther south were again very 
different from those in Haiti. The natives of the islands 
in the north were gentle and peaceful, while those from 
the islands in the south were very warlike and used to 
go on long voyages to attack the tribes of the north. 
These people wore little clothing, though more of it was 
worn in Haiti than in the other islands. The natives often 
painted their noses and eyes, and even their whole bodies. 
For ornaments they wore little trinkets fastened in their 
noses. They were willing to trade anything that they had, 
even pieces of gold, for little bells, some shiny stuff such 
as broken glass or broken dishes. In this and many other 
ways they were just like small children. 



56 



The Story of Columbus 



37." Houses, Canoes and Weapons of the Natives. — 

Columbus believed the natives did not know anything 
about the sharp edge of a knife or a sword, because they 
took hold of his sword in such a way as to cut their hands. 
They had spears made of sticks to which were tied pointed 
pieces of bone. They made canoes by hollowing out logs. 
Most of the canoes were small, just large enough for one 
person, but others were very large — some of them large 




INDIAN BED OR HAMMOCK 



enough to hold fifty men. Small paddles were used for 
oars. The natives were excellent swimmers. When a 
canoe tipped over, they swam along beside it, turned it 
over and crawled back into it again and were not in the 
least put out by such an accident. In Haiti one of the 
kings lived in considerable style. He was carried on an 
arrangement like a litter, and he even wore something on 
his head that resembled a crown. Columbus tells about 
going into some of the houses. Everything in them was 
neat, and there were beds hung between posts, which they 



The Fikst Voyage 57 

called hammocks. This is where we get our word ham- 
mock. The houses were shaped like tents, but there were 
not more than twelve or fifteen of them together in one 
group. Columbus says they saw dogs running about 
which could not bark. 

The Indians had no domestic animals such as cattle, 
sheep, swine, and horses. They had large numbers of 
tame parrots which they killed and ate as we do turkeys 
and chickens. Their food consisted mostly of fruit which 
grew in abundance, of corn, potatoes, and fish. The Span- 
iards found large stores of fine cotton in Cuba, and the 
natives knew how to weave it into some kind of cloth. 

38. Columbus and the Natives. — At San Salvador, 
Columbus retained two of the natives on his ships to help 
him talk with the Indians of the other islands. That 
is, he took them prisoners. A few days later, one of 
these escaped from the ship, but Columbus caught another 
man who was paddling around in a canoe and took him 
instead. Several times Columbus would capture men and 
even women and keep them prisoners for a while on his 
ships, treat them well and then give them presents and 
let them go so that they might teU the natives that the 
strangers were not dangerous. In this way Columbus 
got the natives to come to the shore and bring down 
things to trade for the httle trinkets that he carried 
with him for that purpose. In some places the natives 
fled from their houses, and even from the towns, when they 
saw the strange ships coming toward shore. It was 
thought that they were afraid that these ships might 
carry some of their enemies, who used to come and make 
war upon them. Nearly all of the natives that Columbus 



58 The Story of Columbus 

met on this voyage showed a friendly spirit, and with a 
few exceptions, such as taking some of them prisoner now 
and then, he treated them well in return. The natives 
along the eastern shore of Haiti were less friendly, and 
once they began to shoot at the Spaniards with their bows 
and arrows. Then, for the first tune, Columbus fired at 
them with his guns and a number of the Indians were 
wounded. The fight lasted for a very short time, for when 
the natives saw the firing of the guns they ran for their 
lives. In Cuba, Columbus took six men, seven women, 
and some children on board his ship as prisoners, and ten 
of these were carried back to Spain. These people were 
taken by force and entirely against their will. They knew 
nothing about where they were going and their friends 
and relatives thought they might just as well be dead as 
to go out into the ocean on these strange ships. Columbus 
wanted these people to show to the King and Queen and 
the people of Spain, and he didn't care very much whether 
they Hked to go or not. We shall learn later that Colum- 
bus cared little what the natives themselves wanted; he 
was willing to make them do anything, so long as he 
thought it would pay. We shall find him crowding hun- 
dreds of these poor, simple people in httle ships to carry 
them to Spain to sell as slaves. The only excuse he ever 
made was that by taking them to Spain they could be 
converted into Christians. We certainly would not like 
to have strange things hke those ships come to our shore 
and take some of our people away as was done with 
these natives. 

39. The Search for Gold. — The movements of Colum- 
bus on his voyages cannot be understood, unless we keep 



The First Voyage 59 

clearly in mind that what he was really trying to do was 
to get gold and other valuable things. Indeed, we cannot 
understand his life at all unless this is kept clearly in 
mind. In the Journal in which he described his first voy- 
age he mentioned gold nearly every day from the time he 
reached the first island until he left for Spain. Small bits 
of gold w^ere obtained from the natives at nearly all the 
places where they landed. More of it was obtained in 
Haiti than elsewhere, and that was probably the strongest 
reason why he decided to build a fort there, as we shall 
see a little later that he did. 

In many places the natives wore small ornaments of 
gold and Columbus tried to find out from them where 
gold could be found. It is interesting that in most places 
he understood the natives to say that the gold was some- 
where farther on; that there was not much of it in their 
island, but that there were other places where there was a 
great deal of it. The natives seemed to say that the land 
where the most gold could be found was to the south and 
east of the islands first visited. Their enemies, they said, 
went to the south to obtain gold. 

On October fifteenth Columbus wrote that he hoped to 
find gold ''with the help of our Lord." When he reached 
Fernandina he learned that there was a gold mine some- 
where on that island, and he tried to find it but did not 
succeed. In Isabella he heard of a king who was covered 
with gold ornaments. On October twenty-first he wrote 
in his Journal, "I am proceeding solely in quest of gold 
and spices." In Cuba he heard stories of gold to be found 
elsewhere. He also learned that pearls could be found 
in some of the islands. On the north coast of Cuba, which 



60 The Story of Columbus 

was the most westerly point reached on this voyage, very 
Httle gold was found. The natives, however, told of a 
place far to the south and east where much gold could be 
obtained, so on November twelfth Columbus turned about. 
If Columbus had been sailing merely to discover new 
lands and to learn about geography, and not to find gold, 
spices, and other riches, he would probably have gone 
farther westward along the north coast of Cuba. If he 
had, he would have discovered that Cuba was an island 
and not a part of the main land as he supposed to the end 
of his days. If he had sailed around the west end of Cuba, 
he would have gotten into the Gulf of Mexico, and it is 
perfectly possible that in that case he would have sailed 
still farther west and so found Mr dco itself, where there 
was an immense amount of gold. If Columbus had not 
been so anxious to find gold, he might have found a very 
great deal of it. 

About November twentieth, Pinzon, in the Pinta, stole 
away from Columbus in the hope that he might find gold 
all by himself. Columbus did not know where the Pinta 
had gone, and he even thought that Pinzon might have 
hurried back to Spain to carry the news of the discovery of 
these western lands to the King and Queen before Colum- 
bus could do so himself. About five weeks later, however, 
the Pinta was found on the north coast of Haiti, and this 
ship sailed with Columbus when they started on their 
homeward voyage. 

In Haiti, where the fort was built, the King brought 
considerable gold. He had some large plates of this metal, 
which he broke in pieces and traded to the Spaniards. 

On December twenty-second Columbus wrote in his 



The First Voyage 



61 



Journal, ''Our Lord in whose hands are all things, be my 
Help. Our Lord in his mercy direct me where I may find 
the gold mine." 

It is not surprising that Columbus should write this 




DETAILED MAP OF JOURNEY AMONG ISLANDS 



prayer in his Journal. He was sent out by the Spanish 
Court because it was supposed that India, where he was 
going, was immensely rich, and the thing that the Spaniards 
wanted above all el^e was to get hold of these riches. 
Columbus had been able to get his ships and his men 



^' 




TORTUGA 1. 












C^ 


LaN^^dd^ad 


is 


^ 




^««W 




^k 






-«^ 


> 


^ 


^ 


-"'<«««'-' 


C A 


A. 


I B B E l^N 


s i: 


A 






62 The Story of Columbus 

because it was thought that these riches could be had. 
The Spaniards did not think much about discovering lands 
simply for the sake of discovering them or finding out 
about things; they wanted to get rich — that is the thing 
that must be kept in mind to understand them at all. 

40. The Shipwreck. — On December twenty-fifth 
(Christmas Day), the Santa Maria was wrecked. In the 
evening of December twenty-fourth the Santa Maria and 
the Nina were sailing smoothly along the northwest coast 

of Haiti. Columbus, who was 
badly in need of sleep, had 
gone to bed. On the Santa 
Maria all of the crew had done 
the same, except a young boy 
who was put at the helm to 

MAP OF HAITI SHOWING LA NAVIDAD 

steer. When the vessel was 
drifting along with no one but the boy awake, a current 
carried her onto a sandbank. The boy awakened Colum- 
bus, who at once saw the danger. The crew were imme- 
diately called to work. They put out an anchor and 
they tried in every way to pull the ship off the sandbank, 
but could not move her. When they found that she was 
stuck fast they cut the mast and began to move the stores 
to the Nina. The natives came out in their canoes 
and helped in this work. During this Christmas Day 
everything of value was saved from the wrecked ship. 
The Santa Maria had to be given up, and Columbus 
now had left only one very small ship, the Nina. We re- 
member that the Pinta had sailed away more than a 
month earlier, and as yet Columbus knew nothing of 
her whereabouts. 



The First Voyage 63 

41. Building the Fort. — After the loss of the Santa 
Maria it was decided to build a fort and to leave part of 
the crew there to hunt for gold and spices, while the others 
were to go to Spain in the one little ship that was left. 
The fort was a rude building made of logs. They dug a 
deep and broad ditch around it, which they filled with 
water, and they also put up a tower. The ditch was to 
keep the natives from attacking the fort, and the tower 
was to enable the men to see the country for a distance 
around. Forty men were left at this fort. A list of the 
names was made, and this list has come down to us. 
Among these forty men there was one Englishman 
and one Irishman. They had bread and wine for one 
year, and seeds for planting in the spring. A small boat 
belonging to the Santa Maria was left them. Their pur- 
pose was to search for gold, and Columbus says that he 
expected these men to collect one ton of it by the time he 
should return. They named this fort the Navidad. The 
name is Spanish and refers to the "Nativity" or birth of 
Christ and also to the day when they were stopped at 
this place by the wreck of the Santa Maria, that is, to 
Christmas Day. 

42. Leaving for Spain. — On Sunday, December thir- 
tieth, Columbus had an interesting meeting with the King 
of that part of Haiti. The King and Columbus were very 
friendly one to another, and the King put his crown upon 
the head of Columbus. Columbus in turn took off his 
necklace and his scarlet cloak and placed them on the 
King. He put a fancy pair of shoes on the King's feet and 
placed a silver ring on his finger. But Columbus also 
wanted to show the King that in case he should get into a 



64 The Story of Columbus 

fight with the Spaniards terrible things might be expected. 
So he fired a shot from his cannon and sent it clear through 
both sides of the Santa Maria that was lying on the bank. 
The great noise of the firing of the cannon and the wonder- 
ful power of that great ball was something terrifying and 
awful to those Indians. This cannon was indeed very 
different from the little spears which the Indians used 
as weapons. 

Columbus now gave much good advice to the men 
who were to remain at the fort. We can easily see that 
they needed good advice. They were left there for the 
purpose of collecting gold, and they would, of course, need 
the help of the natives in doing this. There were only 
forty Spaniards and there was a whole island full of 
Indians. So it was very important that the Spaniards 
should treat the Indians well and not offend them in any 
way. We shall learn later that the good advice which 
Columbus gave did not do much good. The men who 
were left at the fort did anything but treat the Indians 
well, and the result was that when Columbus returned, 
eleven months later, every one of these forty men had 
been killed. We must not blame the Indians too much for 
this. The Spaniards would steal everything that they 
could find and would take the women away from their 
famihes, put them into the fort, and treat them as slaves. 
What do you think we would do if people were to come to 
our shores and begin doing that sort of thing? Is it likely 
we would treat them any better than the natives treated 
these Spaniards? 

43. What Columbus Thought of the Islands.— It is 
interesting to note what Columbus thought of the islands 



The First Voyage 65 

he had discovered. He began by speaking of the natives 
as a poor and weak people, but the climate and the trees 
and the islands themselves pleased him greatly. Every 
new place he reached he said was finer than any he had 
seen before. He thought the islands themselves were 
immensely rich and he believed that great gold mines were 
to be found somewhere in them. Columbus never knew 
that Cuba was an island, but thought it a part of the main- 
land of Asia. It is interesting to note, too, that on this 
journey Columbus found the potato, and also tobacco and 
cotton. Any one of these commodities has proved of 
much greater value than all the gold that Spain ever got 
from the new world, or ever hoped to get. Columbus left 
for Europe, however, with the belief that riches were to 
be found somewhere, mainly in gold and spices. He carried 
with him samples of strange bushes on which he believed 
spices grew. These, however, proved to be worthless. 

44. Strange Stories. — Columbus and his men heard 
many strange stories in their journey among these islands. 
The natives seemed to believe that the Spaniards, who 
were white, had come from Heaven. The Spaniards 
themselves encouraged this belief by saying that they 
were children of Heaven, who had come to seek for gold. 
They did this, of course, to get the natives to help them 
and also to make the natives afraid to attack them. 

There were stories of men who would kill people and 
eat them. Men who do that are called cannibals. They 
heard that there was a tribe of cannibals somewhere to 
the south and that these cannibals now and then would 
come to the islands in the north to kill people for food. On 
the island of Haiti some of the natives showed Columbus 
5 



66 The Story of Columbus 

gashes on their legs, which they said were places where 
the cannibals had started to eat them and had bitten out 
chunks before they could get away. The Spaniards also 
heard stories about men with one eye and with faces like 
dogs; they heard about people with tails, who were sup- 
posed to be somewhere to the westward. On November 
seventeenth, when Columbus turned eastward on the north 
coast of Cuba, he remarked in his Journal that he would 
have to go and hunt for gold now, but that some time later 
he might go farther west and see the people with tails. 

45. The Homeward Voyage. — Just two days after 
Christmas, on December twenty-seventh, Columbus got 
word that the Pinta was somewhere on the north coast of 
Haiti and he sent men in a boat to get her captain to bring 
his ship to Navidad. The Pinta, however, did not return, 
but Columbus found her about a week later when he was 
on his journey homeward. Her captain, Pinzon, explained 
his desertion by saying that he had gotten lost from the 
rest of the fleet, and he now agreed to go along with Colum- 
bus. On January fourth Columbus left the fort at Navi- 
dad and sailed eastward along the northern coast of Haiti. 
The wind and the current kept them from going very fast, 
and it was not until January sixteenth that they saw the 
land of Haiti (or Hispaniola, as they called it) for the last 
time. They then turned northward, as will be seen from 
the map, until they got about as far north as Spain, and 
then sailed straight east. 

The homeward voyage was very stormy. The two 
ships, the Nina and the Pinta, were separated and Colum- 
bus feared that the Pinta might have gone down with 
all on board. Columbus was so much afraid that his own 



The First Voyage 



67 



ship would sink that he wrote a story of his voyage and 
put it into a small barrel or keg and threw it overboard, 
in the hope that someone might find it in case his ship 
should be lost. He also put a story of the same kind into 
another keg and placed it on the deck of the Nina so that 
it might float off in case she should go down. 

After sailing one month they were not exactly certain 
as to their location. Columbus thought they were some- 




MAP OF FIRST HOMEWARD VOYAGE 



where close to the Azores, while other members of the 
crew thought they were somewhere near the coast of Spain. 
On February eighteenth they sailed into a harbor of a 
small island, which they found to be one of the Azores. 
Columbus was right and the others were wrong. The 
Azores belonged to the Portuguese, and when Columbus 
sent one-half of his men ashore to attend church they 
were made prisoners and the Portuguese came out to the 
ships and tried to take Columbus and the rest of his men. 
However, Columbus showed them the papers which had 



68 The Story of Columbus 

been given him by the King and Queen of Spain and the 
Portuguese thought then that they had better let him and 
his men go, inasmuch as it was dangerous to offend the 
powerful Spanish kingdom. Columbus sailed on through 
a terrible storm, and on March third the weather drove 
him into a small port in Portugal. He stayed there a few 
days and then went on to Palos, the port in southern Spain 
from which he had sailed. He reached Palos on March 
fifteenth, about seven months after he had left it. In the 
meantime, the Pinta had reached a port in northern Spain 
and from there she proceeded around the coast of Portu- 
gal and arrived in Palos the afternoon of the same day that 
Columbus did. 



CHAPTER III 

Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 

46. Reception in Palos. — It was a joyful day for the 
people of Palos when the ships of Columbus returned. 
Seven months earlier they had started out into the un- 
known Atlantic, and there were many who feared that 
they were lost. During the winter the weather was unusu- 
ally bad. While Columbus was sailing among the islands 
of the West Indies in beautiful weather, the coasts of 
Europe were lashed by terrific storms that raised the sea 
to unusual heights. On his homeward voyage Columbus 
ran into these storms and his ships were in great danger. 

We can well imagine how the people of Palos visited 
back and forth during the long winter months that had 
just passed and talked about the terrible things which 
were believed to be out in the great ocean. As they were 
seated around their firesides in the evening, hearing the 
wind howl, they thought of their own people, members of 
their own families, away out on the ocean where they 
believed the storm was just as furious and possibly worse, 
and it is no wonder that they were worried. We can under- 
stand, then, how happy these people were when they saw 
the ships coming back. And what strange things these 
travelers brought and what marvelous stories they told! 
How the people looked with wonder upon the half-naked 
Indians and the curious birds and the branches of strange 
trees, and how they listened to the story of the journey 
and of the new land beyond the great ocean! 

There was still some anxiety for the forty men who had 

69 



70 



The Story of Columbus 



been left at Fort Navidad, but Columbus assured the 
people that they were all well and no doubt they would 
be found happy and prosperous when he should return to 
them. These simple people of the little town of Palos 
were happy beyond expression. They were proud that 
the little fleet which made this wonderful voyage had 
sailed from their town. And indeed they might well be 
proud of it. The name of the little town of Palos is 

now known all over the world 
just because Columbus sailed 
from there. 

Columbus sent a messen- 
ger to the Court with the news 
that he had returned and then 
went to Seville to await orders. 
The King and Queen immedi- 
ately sent word that he should 
come to them at once to tell 
his story. They also told him to start making arrange- 
ments for another voyage. They were now in a hurry to 
go on with these voyages because they feared that the 
Portuguese would send out a fleet and take some of the 
lands which the Spaniards hoped to get for themselves. 
47. Reception at Court. — News of his return spread 
rapidly as he went on his way from Seville to Barcelona, 
where the Court was now located. People gathered from 
all around to see him as he passed through the towns and 
to look upon the strange people and the wonderful things 
he had brought. He had with him six of his ten Indians. 
One had died at sea and three were sick at Palos. As he 
entered the city of Barcelona he had a procession not 




MAP OP SPAIN SHOWING PALOS, SEVILLE; 
AND BARCELONA 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 71 

unlike that of a small circus. The Indians, nearly naked 
and wearing all their ornaments, headed the line; then 
there were forty parrots carried in cages; there were other 
strange birds of bright and brilliant feathers; there were 
branches of trees which were supposed to furnish spices. 
Next came Columbus himself on horseback, followed by a 
large number of the nobles of Spain, likewise on horseback. 
Columbus returned to the Court of Spain like a king coming 
back from a victorious war. When Columbus was brought 
into their presence the King and Queen were seated at 
the end of the room with Prince Juan. As a mark of 
special respect to Columbus they arose to receive him 
standing. When he drew near they motioned him to be 
seated. The Indians and all the strange things that he 
had brought were in the room, and he pointed to each of 
them in turn as he told his story. He told of the people 
he found, and he showed them the six Indians. He told 
of the wonderful birds he had seen, and he pointed to his 
collection of parrots. He told of the spices that he had 
found, or thought he had found, and he pointed to the men 
carrying branches of strange trees. He told of treasures, 
and pointed to the ornaments which the Indians wore and 
to the collection of gold that he had brought, which, 
though small, was supposed to be but a taste of what was 
soon to come. 

Columbus now lived in Barcelona about six weeks. 
He was treated as one of the royal family. He was given 
large and beautiful rooms in which to live, and almost daily 
he could be seen riding through the streets with the King 
and the Prince. For once in his life, Columbus seems to 
have been really happy. People knew him and he smiled as 



72 The Story of Columbus 

they greeted him on the street. For six weeks, at least, 
Columbus was regarded as the really great man of Spain. 
The news of the great discovery spread rapidly throughout 
Europe, and Spain was the center of much interest. We 
hear of banquets given to Columbus, and many interesting 
stories are told of his life at Court. One of these has been 
told over and over again and had been told many times 
before about other people. We will repeat it here, though 





COLUMBUS COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL, 

Struck after his return from the first voyage 

it is not certain that it really happened in the case of 
Columbus. At a banquet table someone is supposed to 
have said that it was easy enough to find India — all that 
one had to do was to sail westward. Columbus then asked 
a waiter to bring in an egg and requested the guests to 
try to make it stand on end. They all tried to do so but 
failed. Then Columbus took the egg, crushed one end a 
little and thus made it stand up. Then he said, ''This is 
perfectly easy; all one has to do is to crack one end a little." 
The King and Queen now gave Columbus considerable 
money and awarded a coat of arms to him and his family. 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 



73 



A coat of arms is an ornament or badge which kings and 
queens give to people whom they wish to favor especially. 
This coat of arms Columbus was supposed to put on his 
banner, and the members of his family were also supposed 
to use it in some such way. 

48. Preparation for the Second Voyage. — Preparations 
for the second voyage had been started before Columbus 





Columbus's coat of arms 

The picture to right shows the coat of arms as given to Columbus. The mottoes as 

shown in picture to left were added later by descendants of Columbus 

left Seville and were being made rapidly. Seventeen ships 
were collected in the port of Seville. Arms and ammuni- 
tion left over from the Moorish wars were placed on board. 
Horses and other domestic animals, all sorts of tools, and 
implements for tilling the ground, garden seeds, large 
quantities of food and many other things were loaded into 
the vessels. Three of the vessels were large, of the same 
type as the Santa Maria, built especially for carrying 
freight. There were many of the type of the Pinta and 



74 The Story of Columbus 

the Nina, built for war, and there were some smaller, light 
vessels, built to run in shallow water and rivers for the 
purpose of exploring along the coast. 

It is important to notice the kind of people who went 
on the second voyage. We remember that on the first 
voyage it was very hard to get men to go, that criminals 
had to be taken from the jails, and that even then it was 
with great difficulty that about one hundred men were 
gotten together. Now it was very different. There were 
many more wanting to go than could be taken. Columbus 
says that about two thousand offered their services, 
whereas he could take only fifteen hundred. Indeed, it 
had been decided at the outset that there were to be twelve 
hundred men in the expedition, but there were so many 
wanting to go that this number was finally increased to 
fifteen hundred. But few of the men who went were used to 
hard work; many of them were nobles who had never done a 
bit of work in their lives and who wanted to go on an excit- 
ing trip. Some were soldiers who looked for adventures in 
the unknown lands to the west. Some hoped to trade 
with the natives and make themselves wealthy. 

There were men in this expedition who afterwards 
became great sailors. One of these was Ponce de Leon, 
who later discovered Florida. There was a young man, by 
name Ojeda, a brave daredevil of great muscular strength, 
who performed notable feats on this trip and who later 
commanded expeditions of his own. Diego, the youngest 
brother of Columbus, came on from Italy and sailed on 
this journey. 

49. Starting on the Second Voyage. — On September 
twenty-fifth, 1493, about thirteen months after Columbus 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 75 

started on his first voyage, the fleet of seventeen ships left 
the port of Cadiz for the second journey across the ocean. 
This must have been a wonderful day for Columbus. As 
he looked around the harbor he saw the fleet of many 
vessels, of which he was the sole commander. When the 
crews lifted the anchors and hoisted the sails, music 
sounded from the shore. There were great crowds watch- 
ing the departing ships. Cannon were fired and the echoes 
rolled over the waters. Gaily dressed ships not belonging 
to the fleet of Columbus followed them out to sea. On 
the decks of his fleet were his fifteen hundred men — one of 
the most curious mixture of men that ever went on any 
voyage. There were sailors; there were nobles and ser- 
vants, idlers and working men ; there were those who went 
for the fun of it, and others who were ready for anything, 
be it hard or easy. There were priests who started with 
the purpose of converting the Indians into Christians. 
There were men to govern the new provinces in the west, 
who were already thinking about how to arrange their 
states. And the master of all this was the weaver's son 
from Genoa, for thirty years a wanderer on the earth, going 
from land to land to find the help which he needed to sail 
west and find Asia. 

It was a great day for the people of Cadiz and of all 
Spain. They believed that these voyages would add to 
their country great territories and that Spain would be- 
come greater and richer than she ever had been before. 
Though there were to be many disappointments, never- 
theless these voyages led to the discovery of all of South 
America and Central America, and most of these belonged 
to Spain for about three hundred years and she lost the 



76 



The Story of Columbus 



last of her possessions, Cuba and Porto Rico, in the year 
1898, in her war with the United States. 

50. Voyage from Spain to the West Indies. — As on his 
first voyage, Columbus sailed from Spain to the Canaries. 
He reached these islands in seven days, and on October 
fifth anchored at the island of Gomera, the same island 
from which he sailed on his first voyage. 

At Gomera they took on board wood, water, and many 




MAP SHOWING COURSE OP SECOND VOYAGE 



animals which they expected to need, such as calves, goats, 
sheep, swine, and fowl. And they also took seeds with 
which to plant fields, gardens, and orchards. This time 
the intention was to start a real settlement in the new land, 
so they took with them all that they thought they needed 
to do that. They also took on board fruit, such as oranges, 
lemons, and melons. 

On the seventh of October the fleet sailed from Gomera. 
They now went farther south than on the first voyage. 
We will remember that the natives had often told Colum- 
bus about lands of gold and riches to the south of Haiti, 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 



77 



and Columbus wanted to find these lands on his way out. 
Of course, he intended to go back to Fort Navidad in 
Haiti, but he expected to make discoveries on his way there. 
The second voyage was not nearly as interesting to 
Columbus, and is not as interesting to us, as was the first 
voyage. On the first voyage they did not know just where 
they were going and they were watching anxiously for 




MAP SHOWING SECOND VOYAGE AMONG ISLANDS 

every new thing that they saw. On the second voyage 
they knew just what they were about and sailed right 
along without paying any attention to little things which 
they noted with care the first time. This time they ran 
to the south of the seaweed which they saw so much of 
on the first voyage. 

On Sunday, November third, they saw land. It was 
very unhke the island which they had seen on the first 
voyage. Instead of being low and flat, it had great moun- 
tains. They called this island Dominica, in honor of the. 



k 



78 The Story of Columbus 

day on which they first saw it. Finding that they could 
not land here, they sailed on to another, which they named 
Marigalante, after the flagship of Columbus. 

51. From Marigalante to Fort Navidad. — When they 
landed on the island of Marigalante they found that the 
natives had fled. There were beautiful trees, giving off 
the odors which they thought were the odors of spices. 
They did not stay to collect spices, however, and the next 
morning they sailed to another island, which they called 
Guadeloupe. Here they found a real village, in which there 
were only a few young children who had been left when 
the others ran away. Columbus tried to get the natives 
to come back by giving these children little bells and other 
trinkets. After a while the Spaniards saw a few women 
in the roads nearby, but they found no grown-up men. 

In another little town which they visited, the houses 
were built around a square. These houses were made of 
logs and the roofs were covered with leaves. In them were 
chairs and other simple pieces of furniture. They found 
bows and bone-tipped arrows, and they thought that some 
of these were pointed with human shin bones. There 
were also fowls something Hke geese, many parrots, and 
pineapples, which they had not tasted before. They saw 
what they supposed were the bones of men and women 
that had been eaten, and they beheved they saw human 
flesh cooking in pots and hanging from the roofs to dry. 
Over and over again they tell the story that the people 
in these islands were cannibals. It is certain that the word 
''cannibal" is derived from the name ''Caribs" which was 
given to these people. They were first called ''Caribs," 
then ''Carabels," and finally the word became ''Canni- 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 



79 



bals," which is now used to signify any people that eat 
human flesh. 

The captain of one of the ships with a small party of 
men went into the woods and got lost. They wandered 
about the island for nearly a week, without seeing any 
people except a few women and children. They supposed 






.'^*^ 




■^* 5 1 




OLD PICTURE SHOWING FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS 

that all the men had gone off on a war expedition. These 
Caribs were indeed the people about whom Columbus had 
heard so many stories on his first voyage. They were a 
fierce and warhke people who often went to hunt down 
the more timid people of the islands farther north. 

Columbus sailed from Guadeloupe on November tenth 
and anchored again on November fourteenth, near an 
island which he called Santa Cruz. Here they had their 
first fight with the Indians on this journey. The island of 



80 The Story of Columbus 

Santa Cruz was inhabited by the same kind of people — 
the Caribs — that they found on the islands farther south. 
Columbus wanted to take some of them, and so he ran one 
of his ships right onto a canoe filled with them, overturned 
the canoe, and then tried to fish the swimming Caribs 
out of the water. Caribs on shore started shooting with 
arrows, and those in the water fought very fiercely. A 
number of the Spaniards were wounded, and, of course, 
some of the natives were also wounded or killed. The 
men from the overturned canoe were either killed or cap- 
tured and taken on the ship and chained. One of the 
Spaniards who was wounded in this fight died later and 
was buried on the north coast of Haiti. These Caribs 
used arrows with poisoned tips, and it was one of these 
that killed the Spaniard. 

Passing many small islands, they came to the island 
now called Puerto Rico. Here they saw a village close by 
the shore, which was laid out neatly. But the natives had 
fled and they saw none of them. On November twenty- 
second they sighted a low, flat island, which proved to be 
Haiti, the island Columbus had left in the middle of Jan- 
uary of the same year. 

While sailing along the north coast of Haiti they landed 
at various places, and at one place they found human 
bodies with whiskers, which made them fearful that they 
were the bodies of men that had been left at Fort Navidad. 
They reached the shore outside of Fort Navidad on the 
evening of November twenty-seventh and anchored their 
ships. It was dark and too late to go ashore, so they fired 
a cannon to let the people whom they supposed were at 
the fort know that they had returned. There was no 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 81 

answer to this signal, but a little later a native came out 
in a canoe and finally got on board Columbus's ship. 
This native told a story, which they had difficulty in under- 
standing, about how all of the people of the fort had been 
killed and that there was not a single one of the forty 
men left alive. 

52. The Fate of the Men at Fort Navidad. — To under- 
stand what happened at Fort Navidad, we now recall the 
kind of men that Columbus had taken out with him on 
his first voyage. Many of them were bad men — men 
who had committed all sorts of crimes in Spain, for which 
they had been put in prison. They were not the sort of 
men who would be likely to treat the natives kindly, and 
they surely did not do so. They were cruel, they stole 
what they could lay their hands on, and even took the 
women and kept them prisoners in the fort. We now also 
recall the King who had been so friendly to Columbus on 
his first voyage. His name was Guacanagari. While no 
doubt he had learned to distrust the Spaniards, he had 
remained in peace with them during the time that Colum- 
bus was away. 

The people outside of his dominion, however, soon 
learned to distrust the Spaniards heartily, and they were 
only looking for a good chance to attack them. This 
chance came when the Spaniards began to quarrel among 
themselves. They did not like the man whom Columbus 
had made governor, and they tried to put another man in 
his place. They did not succeed in doing this, however, 
for the larger number were willing to have the old governor 
go on until Columbus should return. Those who were 
dissatisfied left the fort and went far into the island, 
6 



82 The Story of Columbus 

beyond the dominion of King Guacanagari. Here a young 
Carib who had come from the other islands farther south 
heard about the Spaniards fighting among themselves. 
He got a number of natives together and they killed the 
few Spaniards who were away out in the island. Then 
this same Carib got some other little kings to join with 
him and they marched quietly and hurriedly up to Fort 
Navidad and attacked it in the middle of the night. The 
Spaniards were very careless, and did not even have a 
watch looking out for danger. Apparently all were asleep, 
and the Indians killed every one of them. Then they 
burned the village of King Guacanagari and wounded the 
JCing himself. 

When Columbus returned and the King finally came 
on board his ship, he would not allow Columbus to hang 
a chain with a cross around his neck. He did not want 
any of the religion in which these Spaniards beheved. He 
thought they were brutal and cruel, and he did not Hke 
to have any more to do with them than was necessary. 

If the Spaniards who were left at Fort Navidad had 
been the right kind of people, they could surely have gotten 
along nicely with the natives and there would have been 
no trouble. They lost their lives because they did what 
was wrong. Decent people will not kill poor savages and 
steal what little they have even if they are not strong 
enough to defend themselves, and in this case the men 
who acted in this manner received their just punishment. 

53. Building the New Town of Isabella. — Columbus 
now decided that the place where Fort Navidad had been 
built was not a good place for a colony. It was low, wet, 
and unhealthy, and there was no stone with which to put 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 83 

up buildings. So he sent out ships to explore around the 
islands, trying to find a better location. These ships 
came back without finding a place that was thought really 
suitable, and on December seventh, ten days after the 
fleet had anchored outside of Fort Navidad, they began 
sailing eastward along the coast of Haiti. They were 
driven into a harbor by a storm, and this appeared to be a 
suitable place for their colony. There was a high, rocky 
point on which they could build a fort. There were two 
rivers, which they could use to turn the wheels of a mill, 
and everything here seemed to be fine. They planted 
garden seeds which came up in five days, and they soon 
had plenty of onions, radishes, and beets. ''Vegetables,'' 
they said, ''grow more in eight days here than they do in 
Spain in twenty." They also heard that there were gold 
mines in the mountains not far away. They called the 
new town Isabella, after the Queen of Spain. 

The work of unloading the seventeen ships now began 
in good earnest. There were horses and other animals to 
be put ashore, there were provisions, and ammunition for 
the guns, and goods of all sorts. They made a plan for the 
town. There was to be a square in the middle and also 
a street. They marked places for the church, for a store- 
house, and for a house for the admiral. The smaller houses 
were built quickly so that the people might have places 
in which to live. While some were building houses, others 
cleared fields and planted orchards. Piers were built to 
be used in landing goods and animals. There was a great 
deal of hard work to be done, and many of the men who 
had come out had not been used to work of this sort 
and naturally they got tired easily. A strange sickness, 



I 



84 The Story of Columbus 

called malaria, crept into the town and soon about one- 
half of the whole expedition were sick. The town for a 
while was a great hospital and those who were well had 
to take care of those who were ill. Columbus himself was 
sick for several weeks, but as the time went on things got 
better. The men got well again, the smaller houses were 
finished, and the ships unloaded and made ready to 
return to Spain. 

All that is now left of the little town of Isabella are the 
ruins of three stone buildings, the church, the storehouse, 
and the admiral's house. All else is a wilderness and no 
one lives there. 

The main trouble of Columbus now was to get some- 
thing valuable to send back to Spain. He had expected 
that the little colony at Fort Navidad would collect a lot 
of gold and other riches to be sent back, so that the Span- 
iards at home would not feel that they were wasting their 
money on these expeditions. 

54. The Search for Gold. — Columbus now made a 
hurried effort to find a gold mine in order to be able to 
send some good news to Spain instead of the gold he had 
hoped to send from Navidad. Ojeda was placed in charge 
of an expedition of fifteen men to hunt gold, and he started 
right into the territory of the Carib chief who had mur- 
dered the men at Fort Navidad. This chief's name was 
Caonabo. It is important to remember his name, for we 
shall hear much about him later. It was certainly a daring 
thing for these fifteen men to start into this territory, but 
they were brave, and well armed. The second night they 
slept on the top of a mountain, and in the morning they 
saw before them a broad, beautiful valley, which they 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 85 

called Vega Real, which means ^^Rich Plains." There 
were small towns scattered over the valley, and a river 
womid its peaceful way along its bottom. They went 
down into this valley and the natives received them kindly. 
They marched up the mountain on the opposite side and 
the natives were still friendly. They did not see or hear 
anything of Chief Caonabo. 

Everywhere in the streams they saw glittering particles 
of what appeared to be gold, and Ojeda picked up one lump 
of real gold which weighed nine ounces. All this gave 
rise to the wildest stories about the tremendous amount 
of gold to be found in the interior parts of the island. One 
statement was like this: 

"The most splendid thing of all is that the rocks on the side of the 
mountain being struck with a club large quantities of gold broke forth." 

It was said that Ojeda was loaded down with the gold 
that they gathered after thus striking the rock once. 

They all said, '^If we find these things on the surface 
of the mountains, what must we not find inside of the 
mountains!" The natives knew how to separate the gold 
from the sand, and with their help the Spaniards soon 
collected quite a bit of it. With this gold, and the promise 
of more, Columbus felt he could send encouraging reports 
to Spain. 

55. Columbus Writes a Letter. — Columbus now wrote 
a long letter to the King and Queen of Spain. This letter, 
with notes written in the margin by the King and Queen, 
is still in existence and may be read with great interest. 
The letter was carried by one of the important men who 
came out with the expedition and who was now returning 
to Spain. In it Columbus requested the King and Queen 



k 



86 The Story of Columbus 

to ask the bearer of the letter about the gold to be found 
near Isabella, and advised them to return thanks to God 
for the riches that had already been discovered. The 
King wrote in the margin, ''We now return thanks to God." 
Columbus then explained about the sickness of his men 
and the friendliness of the natives. He said the greater 
part of his men were sick and that the natives rambled 
about the settlement both day and night. He gave reasons 
for doing and not doing certain things, and the monarchs 
wrote in the margin that he had done well. Columbus 
said that he was building a stone fort for defense and that 
when this was done he would provide for the gathering 
of gold. ^'Exactly as should be done," wrote the monarchs 
in the margin. 

Columbus then asked for provisions and told what 
they had done in the way of planting. He wrote about 
the cannibals, and asked that they be made acquainted 
with the Christian faith and taught the Spanish language. 
"These suggestions are good," wrote the King and Queen 
in the margin. Now came the vital point in this letter. 
Columbus said that cattle were needed in the settlement, 
and that these could be paid for in Carib slaves. With 
the light boats which they were building it would be easy 
to capture them. He said, "They are a wild people, fit 
for any work, well proportioned, and very intelligent, and 
who, when they have got rid of their cruel habits to which 
they have been accustomed, will be better than any other 
kind of slaves." No more definite proposal to start a 
slave trade was ever made. As Columbus laid down his 
pen he asked the King and Queen to praise God, as he 
himself was then doing. 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 87 

It is to the credit of the King and Queen that they 
expressed doubt about this proposal, and we shall see that in 
the end Isabella went so far as to send back some natives 
that Columbus had sent to Spain to be sold as slaves. 

56. What the Natives Thought of the Spaniards.— The 
Indians who came and went through the town of Isabella 
were not really as dull and as simple as Columbus and the 
other Spaniards may have thought they were. They 
learned quickly what was the main thing that the white 
men were after. They soon learned to hold up little bits 
of gold and say, ''Behold! Here is the god of the Chris- 
tians." Later, travelers who came among these people, 
and who learned to know them and were willing to tell 
the truth, said that they heard them say this. The Span- 
iards had already compelled the natives to help in the 
search for gold.- They had taken some of their number 
as prisoners to Spain, and had mistreated many others, 
especially the women. It is no wonder that King Guacan- 
agari did not want to wear the cross, the emblem of the 
Spanish faith. 

A Spaniard historian tells us that some years later a 
native king of Cuba who heard that the Spaniards were 
coming over from Haiti tried to protect his people by 
seeking the favor of their god. Taking a big lump of gold, 
he called his people together and said: ''Behold, this is 
the god of the white men ; let us dance around it and pray 
to it, so it may keep them from harming us." But the 
white man's god did not protect the natives. The Span- 
iards captured this very King and burned him alive. When 
he was dying in the flames a priest held up a cross and 
begged him to "become a Christian" so he might go to 



88 



The Story of Columbus 



Heaven. The half-roasted Indian replied that if there 
were Christians in Heaven he did not want to go there. 

57. Columbus Himself Goes in Search for Gold. — 
Leaving his brother, Diego, in command at Isabella, 
Columbus now started at the head of a large expedition 
for the mountain where Ojeda had found gold. In that 
expedition there were four hundred soldiers, many work- 




MAP OF HAITI SHOWING ISABELLA, VEGA REAL, FORT ST. THOMAS 

men and miners, and men to carry provisions. They had 
military music, the drums were beating constantly, and 
they made as much of a warhke show as they could in 
order to impress the natives. 

On the way they had to build roads and bridges. They 
camped on the same mountain where Ojeda had camped, 
and they looked down upon the same beautiful valley, 
the Vega Real. Columbus erected a cross on the summit 
and then went down into the valley, as Ojeda had done. 
The horses and horsemen astonished the natives beyond 
description. They had never seen a horse before, and they 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 89 

thought that the horse and his rider were all one animal. 
When one of the riders got off they thought that the 
animal separated itself into two parts. The Spaniards 
came to the river in the middle of the valley and the men 
bathed in it, but they found it too deep to wade across. 
So they built rafts on which the men and goods could be 
carried, and the horses were led as they swam the river. 
Then the expedition clambered up the steep mountain 
where Ojeda had found gold. 

On this rnountain, at a place a little more than fifty 
miles from Isabella, they built a fort, which they called 
St. Thomas. There was a river here which flowed in a 
sharp curve so that it was on three sides of the fort. For 
this reason Columbus thought the fort could easily be 
defended against possible attacks of the natives. 

Columbus was now in the highest hopes that a great 
quantity of gold would be found. He thought he saw the 
glittering particles in all the streams. The natives had 
learned to know what the Spaniards wanted, and so they 
brought bits of gold to the fort and traded them for little 
janghng bells and other tinsel, which were of no value 
to the Spaniards but which the natives Uked better than 
the gold. 

Fort St. Thomas was now regarded as the mining camp 
of the expedition. A road was built to Isabella, from which 
food and other needed articles were brought to the new fort. 
From Fort St. Thomas expeditions were sent out to get 
acquainted with the country. The Spaniards planned to 
explore the whole island so that they might discover the 
best mines. The whole thing was arranged in a business-like 
manner for the one purpose of gathering gold. 



90 The Story of Columbus 

58. Trouble at Isabella. — Many of the men at Isabella 
had become dissatisfied. They had to work hard, whereas 
they had come out expecting to have a lot of fun and no 
serious work to do. The food was not good, nor was there 
plenty of it. When the expedition was fitted out in Spain 
some of the merchants had put in bad food, although good 
food had been paid for. This is not at all surprising. The 
same thing has happened many a time even in our day. 
Men have sold bad food to armies, both in the United 
States and in England, within the memory of those of us 
who are not even old at the present time. 

The man who kept the accounts of the colony, one 
named Diaz, now put himself at the head of those who 
were dissatisfied. He accused Columbus of mismanaging 
the colony and of having made false promises to the 
colonists before they left Spain. In a land which Colum- 
bus had described as beautiful, rich, and healthy, they 
were dying from sickness and starvation. Diaz and his 
followers even made plans to bring charges against Colum- 
bus at the Court of Spain. The plots were discovered by 
Columbus, and Diaz was put in chains and placed aboard 
a ship to be taken to Spain for trial. The other men were 
punished in various ways, but on the whole the punish- 
ments were light. Columbus did not want to be harsh 
with them, for by showing that he was lenient he hoped 
to get all his men to like him so that there would be no 
further trouble of this sort. 

There is no doubt that Columbus had painted the 
newly discovered country in too rosy colors. He surely 
said that it was finer in many respects than it really 
was. Now, these Spaniards, who had not been used to 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 91 

work or hardship of any sort, said that the islands 
were worse than they really were. Columbus and Diaz 
were about equally far from the truth, and it is hard 
to say which one of them was more at fault in making 
untrue statements. 

When Columbus returned from his trip to Fort St. 
Thomas he found ripe vegetables in the gardens which 
they had planted. There is no doubt that if the Spaniards, 
instead of hunting for gold, had come out to be simple 
farmers in this new land they would have gotten along 
very well. More than a hundred years later, people from 
England settled on the bleak shores of what is now Massa- 
chusetts, not for the purpose of finding gold, but to make 
homes for themselves where they could raise what they 
needed to live on. These people, living on a stony and poor 
soil and in a cold climate, got along very much better than 
the Spaniards who were hunting gold in this fertile and 
charixdng island. 

Although Columbus succeeded in suppressing the first 
mutiny his troubles were not ended. Fever broke out 
again and large numbers were sick. The whole colony was 
threatened with starvation. Columbus now took things 
in his own hands and forced the priests and the nobles to 
work just the same as the common laborers. This they 
hated to do, for they thought common work degrading. 
Even when they were in danger of starvation they would 
remain idle unless compelled to work. It is no wonder 
that they were dissatisfied and angry. These priests and 
nobles of Spain, who had never done a stroke of work with 
their hands in all their lives, thought it something horrible 
that this man Columbus, who was not even a Spaniard, 



92 



The Story of Columbus 



/^. 




but a foreigner — a mere Italian — should now make them 
work. However, they had to work or starve, and the result 
was that m the end they all worked. 

59. Trouble with the Natives. — At St. Thomas, Colum- 
bus left a force of fifty-six men to complete the fort, to 
explore the country, and to collect gold. He gave the men 

instructions to treat the natives 
well, but these instructions were 
useless. The Spaniards were soon 
abusing them just as the men at 
Fort Navidad had done, and the 
natives became angry and war- 
like. They began to capture and 
rob small parties of Spaniards 
going between Isabella and Fort 
St. Thomas. The natives were 
not really dangerous, however, 
for it was found that a single 
horseman in armor could defeat 
a whole band of Indians. 

In one case a Spanish horse- 
man attacked a group of natives 
and recaptured five Spaniards 
whom they had taken prisoners. 
The fact was that the weapons of the Spaniards enabled 
them to defeat the natives even when they were in very 
large numbers. This led Columbus to believe that all 
that was necessary was to take good care and there 
would be no real danger from their attacks. As soon as 
he felt that his men could get on without him, he decided 
to take three small ships and go on an exploring expedition 




\^^ 



ARMOR USED IN TIME OF COLUMBtfS 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 



93 



toward the west. On April twenty-fourth he left Isabella 
and sailed westward along the coast of Haiti. 

60. Sailing Along the South Coast of Cuba. — On his 
journey westward, along the north coast of Haiti, Colum- 
bus stopped at the old Fort Navidad. King Guacanagari 
did not come out to greet him and Columbus did not stay 
to learn why but went on to Cuba. When he reached the 
east end of this island, which he had seen on his first 
voyage, he sailed along its southern coast. On the first 




MAP SHOWING VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION AMONG ISLANDS ON SECOND VOYAGE 

day they found natives near the shore. These people 
had never seen ships like those of Columbus, and they fled 
in terror. The crews of the ships landed and ate their 
food. When some of the natives came nearer the shore, 
Columbus gave them trinkets for the food and treated 
them well. The story of these ships and of the kindly 
white men in them was told along the shore ahead of 
Columbus, and as the ships ghded by, the natives came 
out in their canoes and brought all the fruit that Columbus 
and his men could use. No doubt, the natives came out 
not only to trade their fruit, but also to see the wonderful 
ships. Every place Columbus went he heard the same 



94 The Story of Columbus 

story about the great island to the south from which all 
the gold that the Cubans had was said to come. So, on 
May third, after having reached what is now the town of 
Santiago, Cuba, Columbus left the coast of Cuba and 
sailed straight south. 

6i. Columbus in Jamaica. — Soon after leaving the 
coast of Cuba they saw a streak of land on the horizon, 
but it was two days before they came close to the shore. 
This land was an island which the natives called Jamaica. 
Columbus named it San Diego, but its old Indian name 
has continued until now. As they drew near great 
numbers of canoes came out to meet them. At first the 
natives showed signs of fright, but Columbus threw them 
little gifts and they lost their fears. When the Span- 
iards began to land, however, the natives attacked them; 
but a cannon was fired several times and they ran for 
their lives. Here for the first time we hear the story 
that the Spaniards let loose a fierce dog on the natives. 
Later on they used these dogs frequently in their wars 
with the Indians. 

A King now came out to make peace with Columbus, 
and as the Spaniards sailed along the coast westward there 
was no more trouble with the natives. They came out in 
their canoes constantly to trade, and it was here that a 
young man came on board Columbus's ship and asked if 
he might be taken to the strange land from which these 
ships came. Columbus agreed to take him, and asked the 
crew to treat him kindly since the boy appeared to have 
courage and other likable qualities. We hear nothing 
more about him, however, and it is not known what 
became of him. 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 95 

Columbus says that the natives of Jamaica were more 
warhke than any he had seen before, except the Caribs. 
They also appeared to be more intelligent. They were 
better sailors, and had very big canoes made from the 
mahogany trees which grew on this island. There was 
one canoe, ninety-six feet long and eight feet wide, all 
made from one log. What a tremendous mahogany log 
that must have been! The simple utensils and tools 
which these people had were of the same kind as those 
found on the other islands, but they were better made. 

When Columbus reached the western end of Jamaica 
he sailed northward, and on May eighteenth was again on 
the coast of Cuba. He then turned westward and soon 
reached what is now called Cape Cruz. On going around 
this cape he saw a broad bay to the north and on the west 
side of the bay there was a large number of small islands, 
which he called the Queen's Gardens. Among these 
islands the passages were so narrow that he often could 
not turn his ships around and sometimes he had to send 
boats ahead with ropes to pull them through the narrow 
channels. From one of these islands natives came up to the 
ships in a canoe and gave them what fish they wanted. 
Columbus tells a wonderful story about how these natives 
caught fish. He says there is a fish in those waters which 
catches other fish by means of suckers attached to its 
head. The natives would first catch one of these fish, 
tie a line to its tail, and then let it out. It would then 
catch another fish, by means of its suckers, and the fisher- 
man would pull in both fish and take off the one that was 
caught and let the catcher out again; and so they con- 
tinued fishing all day! 



96 



The Story of Columbus 



62. Sailing Along the Coast of Cuba. — We now recall 
that it was on the north coast of Cuba that Columbus heard 
about people with tails, and now he heard the same stories 
again. These people with tails were supposed to live much 
farther west. They wore long cloaks so that the tails 
could not be seen. One day when Columbus had to stop 
to fix one of the ships, a hunter went ashore and came 
rushing back with the story that he had seen some people 
with white robes. Other men were sent ashore to hunt 

for them, for they thought 
surely here were the people 
with tails. None were found, 
however. It is supposed that 
the excited hunter saw a flock 
of white cranes in the distance. 
The coast now began to 
turn southward and Columbus 
thought that he was sailing 
along the shore of the Malay 
On the map you will see just 
The Malay Peninsula 




MAP SHOWING WHERE COLUMBUS THOUGHT 
THE COAST OF CUBA WAS 



Peninsula in eastern Asia. 

where Columbus thought he was. 

was believed to be the richest in spices of all the lands of 

the East. 

We know that at this time Columbus was thinking 
about sailing around the south coast of Asia and then 
around Africa to Spain. He also thought that he might 
sail up the Red Sea and leave his ships, cross overland 
where the Suez Canal now is, and then get another ship 
and reach Spain by the way of the Mediterranean. Of 
course, we know now that Columbus could not have done 
that, because he was not on the coast of Asia at all; but 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 



97 



if he really had tried to do it he would no doubt have run 
up against the mainland in Central America and thus 
found Mexico, which he never did find. 

The wooden ships of those days were often attacked 
by a boring worm, especially in a warm climate, and be- 
came leaky. Columbus's ships were now leaking badly 




MAP SHOWING COURSE COLUMBUS PROPOSED TO FOLLOW TO GO AROUND THE WORLD 

from this cause, and the crews became anxious and wanted 
to turn back to Isabella. At this point they found that 
their interpreter, whom they had taken along from Haiti, 
could no longer understand the people. For these reasons, 
though much against his will, Columbus was compelled 
to turn around. 

63. Columbus's Men Sign a Paper. — Before Columbus 
started back he drew up a remarkable paper and compelled 
his men to sign it. In this paper they swore that they 
7 



98 The Story of Columbus 

believed Cuba was a part of Asia and that one could travel 
all the way from there to Spain by land. It was solemnly 
stated that if anyone should change his mind on this 
matter he would be severely punished. If he were an 
officer he was to be fined a large sum of money, and if an 
ordinary sailor he was to receive one hundred lashes on 
his back and have his tongue out. All the eighty people 
in Columbus's crews swore to this paper. Of course it 
was all nonsense to sign such a paper, for they could not 
possibly know that the statements in it were true. They 
had no means of knowing that one could pass by land 
from Cuba to Spain. Surely if later they might learn 
that Cuba was an island, as we now know it is, not all the 
sworn statements in the world could keep them from 
changing their minds. Childish and silly as this whole 
thing now seems to us, Columbus wanted such a paper to 
present to the Court of Spain. He was anxious above all 
else to make certain that he had really found Asia, and 
possibly a little more anxious to have others believe it. 

It is interesting to think that if Columbus had sailed 
westward just a very few days more, the coast would 
have turned to the northward, and if he had followed it 
he would have gone around Cuba and he and his men 
would have changed their minds in spite of the statement 
they had all sworn to. 

64. Returning Eastward. — On the way eastward they 
found the Isle of Pines, then sailed along the south shore 
of Jamaica and the south shore of Haiti. They were 
delayed by storms along the whole eastward journey, but 
the natives continued to be friendly and to provide the 
crews with such food as they had. The food was getting 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 99 

low and the men were limited to one pound of moldy 
bread each day and a small cup of wine. The wind was 
constantly from the east, and it took one whole month to 
pass Jamaica. After going around the eastern end 
of Haiti they finally reached Isabella on September 
twenty-ninth. 

Columbus had been absent five months on a very 
troublesome voyage. His crews were tired and worn out 
and he himself was too sick to stand up when they entered 
Isabella. On this journey, as we have seen, he explored 
nearly all of the south coast of Cuba, sailed around the 
island of Jamaica, and explored the southern coast of 
Haiti. It seems a pity that he did not continue far 
enough to reach the western end of Cuba and then turn 
northward. That would have given Columbus certain 
new ideas which unfortunately he never came to have. 

65. Columbus Meets His Brother Bartholomew. — 
When Columbus reached Isabella, he found his brother 
Bartholomew. We now recall that this brother had 
already done important work in the way of discoveries. 
He was with the Portuguese when they first sailed around 
the south end of Africa. He was sent by Columbus to 
see if the King of England would help in fitting out ships 
to go across the ocean. When Bartholomew returned to 
Spain by way of France, he learned that his brother had 
already found land across the Atlantic and had gone west 
again on his second voyage. The King of Spain was just 
then sending out a fleet with supplies for Haiti, and 
Bartholomew came out with this fleet. Bartholomew was 
strong, brave, and able — just the sort of man that Colum- 
bus needed most to help him. In some ways he was a 



100 



The Story of Columbus 



better man than his brother. He was a better speaker 
and writer and he could manage men better, and was not 
so given to impractical dreaming. Columbus now made 




/ 



PORTRAIT OF BARTHOLOMEW COLUMBUS 



him governor of Haiti,- with the title of Adelantado, which 
means governor of a province, 

Bartholomew told how things were going in Spain, 
that Columbus's family were well and were enjoying them- 
selves at the Court. Columbus had feared that his enemies 
might have gotten the King and Queen to show his family 
disfavor, but Bartholomew told him that there was no 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 101 

serious danger of that. Meeting with his brother and 
hearing the good news which he had to tell was very im- 
portant for Columbus, now when he was in bad health and 
low spirits. It did more to make him well than anything 
else could possibly have done. 

66. Trouble at Isabella While Columbus Was Away. — 
At Isabella, Columbus found trouble enough for a well man. 
The expedition which was to explore the country around 
Fort St. Thomas had not done so, but had abused the 
natives in many ways so that they had become very 
unfriendly. The chief, Caonabo, who had destroyed Fort 
Navidad, now decided to destroy Fort St. Thomas. He 
gathered an army and tried to surprise the Spaniards. 
Ojeda, who was in command, was too shrewd and alert 
to be taken by surprise. He gathered his men into the 
fort, and Caonabo, who had hoped to surprise them, found 
the Spaniards ready. The natives did not dare to come 
within range of the Spanish weapons, and Ojeda was too 
wary to be drawn into an open fight. Caonabo then tried 
to starve the Spaniards by placing a guard all about the 
fort so no one could go out or in. If he had kept this up 
long enough he no doubt would have succeeded, but little 
by little the savages became tired of the siege and went 
away. So Ojeda and his men got out safely. Caonabo 
now learned of quarrels among the Spaniards at Isabella, 
and although he had just failed to take Fort St. Thomas, 
he now decided to try to drive the Spaniards from the 
island altogether. He felt that this was not entirely a 
hopeless undertaking, for he had once succeeded in doing 
away with the entire Spanish colony at Fort Navidad. 
King Guacanagari, the old friend of Columbus, learned 



102 The Story of Columbus 

of the plans of Caonabo, and as soon as Columbus returned 
from his trip to the west he told him what was going on. 

67. The Battle of Vega Real. — The native army was 
gathering in the valley called Vega Real. The story runs 
that they numbered one hundred thousand. Columbus 
had opposed to them about two hundred soldiers, with 
twenty horsemen. The Spaniards attacked from all sides 
at once. The natives were in an open space with timber 
all around, and the Spaniards crawled up close to them 
through the trees and then began to shoot at them with 
guns. The natives were bewildered by the shots coming 
from all sides. Their confusion was increased by the noise 
of the Spanish drums, which was greater than that of all 
their warwhoops. When they began to retreat, Ojeda, at 
the head of the twenty horsemen, rode straight into the 
crowd and killed a great many of them with spears. At 
the same time, a number of bloodhounds were let loose. 
The Indians were soon on the run, making for the hill- 
sides all around. Caonabo and his great army were com- 
pletely defeated. From now on, the natives were much 
in fear of the Spaniards and there was no further attempt 
to drive them from the island. 

68. The Capture of Caonabo. — Caonabo, however, 
escaped, and Ojeda followed him with only ten men. The 
Spaniards rushed right into Caonabo's camp and the 
Indian, who liked this brave, reckless man, treated him 
as his own guest. Ojeda now invited Caonabo to go 
with him to Isabella to see the town. As Caonabo had 
wandered about in the woods near Isabella he had heard 
the ringing of the great bell, and he wanted very much to 
see it. Ojeda told him that if he would go with him he 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 103 

would give him the bell. This temptation was too great 
for the Indian, who said he would go, if he could take with 
him a great force of armed men. Ojeda agreed to this 
and they started toward Isabella. They came to a river 
and Ojeda showed the unsuspecting Indian some hand- 
cuffs, which were bright, shiny things, and told him that 
they had been sent by the King of Spain to be presented 
to the bravest Indian chief they might find, and that now 
he wanted to give them to Caonabo. After crossing the 
river, Ojeda took the Indian chief on the back of his horse 
and placed the handcuffs on his hands. Then all the 
Spanish horsemen made a sudden dash through the crowd 
of Indians, who parted and let them pass. When beyond 
the reach of the Indians they stopped and tied Caonabo 
fast on the horse's back. In this way these few Spaniards 
rode into the camp at Isabella with the Indian chief as 
their prisoner. 

The brave Caonabo hated all of the Spaniards except 
Ojeda; He particularly hated Columbus, who he thought 
was not brave enough to do the things which he sent his 
man Ojeda to do; but he liked Ojeda because of his bravery 
and his cunning. 

69. The First Shipload of Slaves Sent to Spain. — 
While the natives were gathering under Caonabo, getting 
ready for the battle of Vega Real, Columbus did one of 
the things which his friends must always regret. He felt 
that he could not return to Spain without repaying some 
of the money which had been expended in fitting out his 
expeditions. The amount of gold which could be gathered 
was not nearly enough for this, and so he decided to send 
some of the natives to Spain and sell them as slaves. 



104 The Story of Columbus 

On February twenty-fourth, 1495, the first shiploads of 
Indians were sent to Spain. Five hundred of them were 
crowded into small ships to make the journey across the 
ocean. We must not be too harsh in our judgment of 
Columbus on account of this, for in his time the enslaving 
of heathen people was not always thought to be wrong. 
The Portuguese had taken a great many slaves in Africa 
and sold them in Europe. 

We should remember, however, that the King and the 
Queen of Spain had not been any too certain that this 
should be done, and later Queen Isabella decided that 
slavery was bad and some of the slaves were sent back 
from Spain to the West Indies. 

70. How the Natives Were Forced to Gather Gold. — 
Columbus now felt that he had taken care of his enemies 
among the Spaniards and that he had subdued the Indians. 
So he decided to give all his attention to the gathering of 
gold. He made a plan for forcing the natives to gather 
gold, which in the end made slaves of them all. Every 
person above fourteen years of age was required to bring 
in a certain amount every three months. The Spaniards 
made little copper medals and gave one to each native 
as he brought in the amount required of him. If the Span- 
iards found a native without the proper number of these 
copper medals they knew that he had not done his work. 
The Indians who did not bring in gold were given a certain 
number of lashes and set to work just hke prisoners or 
slaves. In many parts of the island the natives could not 
possibly find as much gold as they were required to bring 
in, and in these cases they were allowed to bring in cotton. 
Some chiefs offered to bring in grain, but the Spaniards 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 105 

insisted on either gold or cotton. Even Columbus's old 
friend King Guacanagari had to bring in his share. Small 
bodies of armed men were stationed in little forts all over 
the island. These men continued the customary Spanish 
abuse of the natives and hunted out those who failed to 
bring in gold. Under this treatment the character of the 
Indians changed entirely. Their spirit of joyful inde- 
pendence was lost. They became sad and quiet. They 
sang sad songs, and many of them went into the moun- 
tains, where they starved and died rather than work for 
the Spaniards. Under this brutal treatment the Indians 
died rapidly. Columbus was mistaken in his belief that 
they would make fine slaves. 

71. The Enemies of Columbus in Spain. — In the 
meantime, Columbus had made many enemies. Some of 
the men who went out with him on his first voyage were 
jealous because they thought they should receive as much 
credit for the voyage as Columbus himself. Others who 
went on the second voyage and had returned to Spain 
hated Columbus because he had not permitted them to 
steal as much as they wanted to from the natives. Others 
were honest in their belief that the colony at Isabella was 
not well managed and that Columbus was cruel to the 
natives. These enemies, when they got to Spain, went to 
the Court and told their stories to the King and Queen. 
Some of the stories were true and some were not. They 
told how the natives were abused, how Columbus was 
brutal not only to the natives but also to the Spaniards. 
They said everything was going wrong in Haiti, that the 
land which he had described as beautiful and rich was in 
reality a wretched place and not fit for the homes of white 



106 The Story of Columbus 

people. What the enemies of Columbus really wanted to 
do was to have his power taken away. The result was 
that the King and Queen sent another expedition to Haiti 
to look over the whole island and see just what it was like 
and what was going on. Columbus heard about this 
trouble at the Court, and so he decided that the best thing 
for him to do was to go to Spain and see the King and 
Queen himself. On June eleventh, 1496, his ship entered 
the harbor of Cadiz in Spain. 

72. Columbus in Spain, 1496-1498. — The men who 
crawled out of the caravels in the' harbor of Cadiz were 
weak from sickness and worn out by a long voyage. The 
constant westerly winds had kept them near the West 
Indies for two months and the journey from Isabella to 
Spain occupied in all three months. As they landed 
Columbus wore the simple robe of a monk, and his meek 
bearing was in marked contrast to his splendid return 
from the first voyage. There was a small fleet in the har- 
bor ready to sail for Isabella, and Columbus sent a letter to 
his brother Bartholomew, in which he urged him to use 
every means to make the colony profitable so that some of 
the money paid in fitting out his expeditions might be repaid. 

The King and Queen now had many things to hold 
their attention. Their son and daughter were both about 
to be married. There was grave danger of war with 
France. Columbus wanted to get ships for another expe- 
dition to sail in search of lands not yet discovered, but all 
ships that could be had were needed at home since the 
French might make an attack at any time. In the spring 
of 1498 the Queen sent two ships to Isabella with food and 
other necessary articles. 



Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 107 

When the King and Queen finally turned their attention 
again to the problem of getting ships and crews for another 
expedition, they found it difficult to secure either. It was 
especially difficult to get crews. Again prisons were 
opened and criminals taken, and outlaws still out of prison 
were pardoned on condition that they would enter the 
crews of Columbus. 

It seems that in spite of the work of Columbus's ene- 
mies the King and Queen still remained his friends and be- 
lieved in his plans, but people in general had lost faith in 
him. The expense in money and work and human life 
of his expeditions had been large and the returns in money 
had been very small. There were only the small collections 
of gold and a few shiploads of slaves to show for all the 
outlay. After his first journey Columbus had been a 
popular hero, greeted with respect by all who saw him. 
Now he was laughed at and jeered at when he appeared 
on the streets. The days of his popularity had passed, 
never to return. 

It may be remarked here that in May, 1498, Da Gama, 
sailing for the Portuguese, reached the real India after 
going around the south end of Africa. The India reached 
by Da Gama, while not as rich as the India of the fables 
told by early travelers, nevertheless gave rise at once 
to a very profitable trade. Poor as were the West Indies 
discovered by Columbus, yet nevertheless they gave to 
Spain much more of lasting value than the Portuguese 
ever got from their trade with India. 



CHAPTER IV 
The Third Voyage 
73. The Course Planned for the Third Voyage. — For 

several reasons Columbus now planned to sail south about 
as far as the Equator and then straight west across the 
Atlantic. The natives had constantly told about rich 




COLUMBUS IN CHAINS 



lands farther south and he wished to find these on his way 
out. There was also at that time a belief in Europe that 
the greatest riches were to be found in the warmer climates. 
In a letter written to Columbus by a well-known jeweler 
we find the statement that gold and jewels come in greatest 
abundance from near the Equator, where black races of 
people live. ''Therefore/' says this jeweler, ''steer south 
108 



The Third Voyage 



109 



and find a black race if you would find such riches in 
abundance." Cohimbus also expected by going farther 
south to strike the most southern part of China and pos- 
sibly sail around it into the Indian Ocean. 

74. The Story of the Outward Voyage. — As on the 
previous voyages, Columbus sailed from Spain to the 
Island of Gomera. From there he sent three of his six 




MAP SHOWING COURSE OF THIRD VOYAGE 



ships directly to Haiti with provisions. Then he sailed 
south with the other three to the Cape Verde Islands. 
There he found the cHmate exceedingly hot and bad for 
the health of himself and his crews. He now began to be 
troubled with gout, which was to grow worse and remain 
with him for the rest of his days. When he started west- 
ward from the Cape Verde Islands he ran into a calm sea 
and for a couple of weeks the ships lay nearly still. We 
now know that there is a belt of calms in the region of the 
Equator, and it was in this belt that Columbus found him- 
self. To get out of the calms he headed his ships farther 



no 



The Story of Columbus 



north and then started west for what he thought were the 
Carib Islands, where he had struck land on his second 
voyage. Swept along by the ocean current and a steady 
wind, he crossed the Atlantic rapidly and on July thirty- 
first land was sighted. 

75. The Island of Trinidad. — It was fortunate that 
they reached land quickly, because their water was nearly 

gone, their ships were 
leaky, the crews were 
discouraged, and many 
on board were sick. 
The island which Co- 
lumbus saw first had 
three tall peaks and so 
he called it Trinidad. 
They landed at the 
south end of this island, 
and filled their water 
casks. The men went 
ashore mornings and evenings and found the cold breezes 
most dehghtful after the very hot weather that they had 
experienced on their journey. To the south they saw the 
low country of South America with the many mouths of 
the great Orinoco River. We know that this river divides 
up into a number of streams to form a great delta just as 
it enters the ocean. It is interesting that when Columbus 
saw the mainland of America for the first time he thought 
it was an island, whereas he thought Cuba, which is in 
reality an island, was a part of the mainland. 

76. The Serpent's Mouth. — We now know that there 
is a great ocean current going in from the Atlantic along 




MAP SHOWING THIRD VOYAGE AMONG ISLANDS 



The Third Voyage 



111 



the northeast coast of South America, that this great 
current sweeps all the way through the Caribbean Sea 
and the Gulf of Mexico and goes out again between Florida 
and Cuba, and across the Atlantic. This is the stream 
which in the North Atlantic is known as the Gulf Stream. 
Columbus, who knew nothing about this, found a great 




COLUMBUS ALONG THE COAST OF CENTEAL AND SOUTH AMEEICA, THIED VOYAGE 

current rushing in between the mainland and the Island 
of Trinidad. The strait here is narrow and the water 
flowed like a swift river. This not only surprised him but 
made him and his crew very uneasy, for they had never 
seen anything like this before. Another thing which made 
them uneasy and afraid was, that when the tide went 
down a great volume of water came flowing into the ocean 
from the river. This raised the surface of the water, so 
that the cables which held the anchors became too short 
and one of them broke during the night. They could 



112 The Story of Columbus 

not turn around because it was impossible to sail against 
the current, and it looked very dangerous to go on. A 
boat was sent out to examine the passage and came back 
with the story that the water was really deeper than it 
looked to be, and so they decided to try it. A favorable 
wind came up and they headed the small ships right 
through the boiling water. They came through all right, 
and on the other side the water was smooth and placid. 
Columbus named this strait the Serpent's Mouth — a name 
which it bears to this day. 

77. In the Gulf of Paria. — They now sailed northward 
along the west coast of the Trinidad Island and soon found 
another narrow strait with rushing currents, which looked 
even worse than the Serpent's Mouth. This they named 
the Dragon's Mouth. Columbus, who did not know that 
they were in an enclosed bay, sailed westward along the 
shore. From the ships they saw a lot of monkeys, but 
no people. They finally cast anchor near the mouth of a 
river, and landed. This is probably the first time that 
white people landed on the continent of America. Colum- 
bus was ill at the time and it is not certain that he him- 
self went ashore. He was disappointed to see that the 
natives were copper colored, Hke those of Haiti, and 
not black as he had expected. It was among black 
people that he hoped to find much gold and many 
precious stones. Columbus heard the natives call the 
land Paria, and this is the name which he gave to the 
land and also to the sea. 

The natives were very friendly and received them with 
hospitality. As they sailed along the coast they found 
better canoes than they had seen farther north. They 



The Thikd Voyage 113 

were of the same general type but showed better work- 
manship. Columbus also thouglii that the people were 
more clever and more mtelligent than any he had seen 
before. The women wore strings of pearls hanging about 
their necks, and the Spaniards were told that these pearls 
came from oyster shells. 

The food that the Spaniards had taken with them on 
the voyage was now rapidly spoiling because of the warm 
weather. Even things which they had taken to dehver 
at Haiti were spoiling. Columbus was feeling worse, his 
gout was bad, and his eyes had swollen so that he could 
scarcely see, and he was afraid that he would become 
really sick, as he was when he^ returned to Haiti the 
year before. 

78. The Dragon's Mouth. — They now returned to the 
Dragon's Mouth, but it looked to be a very dangerous 
place to pass. The waters rushed and tumbled like a 
river flowing swiftly over rocks. Columbus thought that 
this might be from other causes than rocks, and as there 
was really nothing else to do he decided to send the little 
fleet through. They waited for a favorable wind and 
then headed right for the middle of the strait. While 
going through the wind stopped and they had to let 
the current sweep them along. But everything went 
all right, and they came out on the other side to peaceful 
water as they had done when they passed through the 
Serpent's Mouth. 

79. The Coast of Paria. — On August fifteenth they 
found themselves in the open waters north of Trinidad, 
and sailed westward along the coast. They found natives 
in canoes fishing for pearls, and stopped to trade with 

8 



114 



The Story of Columbus 



them. Columbus remarked that the Spaniards exchanged 
worthless things for pearis. We have seen that Columbus 
believed that the land to the south was an island. He 



Ml '■' 



\^^ V 



I <*n.> 



'-■ > '-'i 







UfT'' 







\f^A; N^ 




^^.y 



OLD PICTURE SHOWING COLUMBUS TRADING FOR PEAKLS 



thought a strait separated it from the mainland of Asia, 
which he supposed lay to the west, and he continued west- 
ward along the coast to find this strait. The natives told 
him that to the west there was a ''narrow place" and 
Columbus thought they meant a narrow strait through 



The Third Voyage ll5 

which he might sail. The natives probably referred to 
the narrow stretch of land connecting North and South 
America. This neck of land has now been cut by the 
Panama Canal. 

Columbus had curious ideas about the lands he had 
discovered. He wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella that the 
mountain in Haiti where gold had been found was the 
same mountain from which Solomon got his gold and 
''which now belongs to the King and Queen of Spain." 
He thought that the Orinoco River came from the Garden 
of Eden, and that it was the river which one reads about 
in the Bible as watering that land. For miles around the 
mouths of the great Orinoco the water is fresh and Colum- 
bus said that ''the lovely waters from the Garden of Eden 
sweeten all the sea around." Columbus was full of all the 
fancies and superstitions of his time. 

But Columbus could not remain long on the coast of 
Paria. His provisions were running low and his health 
was bad, and he decided to run up to Haiti, where he 
hoped to rest and replenish his provisions. Doubtless he 
expected to return to Paria soon to gather pearls, but we 
shall see that a very different fate awaited him. 

80. Founding of Santo Domingo. — Gold had been 
found in the southwestern part of Haiti before Columbus 
returned to Spain on his second voyage. Bartholomew, 
who was left in charge in Haiti, explored the country 
farther and decided to build a town on the south coast of 
the island near these new mines. This town was at first 
named New Isabella, but it soon came to be called Santo 
Domingo, the name which it still bears. The natives had 
learned by this time that the only safe thing for them to 



116 



The Story of Columbus 



do was to serve the Spaniards promptly. When they 
were requested to bring in food, cotton, and other useful 
articles to the settlers in this new town, they did so without 
making any objections. 

When Columbus left the coast of Paria to sail for Haiti 
his ships were carried far to the west by the ocean current, 
and he finally struck the coast of Haiti much farther west 




CATHEDRAL AT SANTO DOMINGO 



than he had expected. Fearing it would take a long time 
to sail eastward against this current, he sent a messenger 
ashore to let his brother know that he had returned. 
Bartholomew went to meet him, and it was on board his 
ship off the south coast of Haiti that Columbus learned 
about the founding of Santo Domingo and about the 
many troubles in Haiti during his absence. 

8i. Relations with the Natives. — Columbus found the 
relations between the Spaniards and the natives even 
worse than when he left. Small parties of workmen and 



The Third Voyage 117 

soldiers were now living in the little forts that had been 
built in every neighborhood. In this way Spanish brutal- 
ity and mistreatment had reached all the people of the 
island. Even though the natives had learned that they 
could not win in a fight against the white men, they at 
times got so desperate over the wrongs they suffered 
that they made attacks. These attacks were punished 
with the utmost severity. Once the natives broke into 
a Spanish church, destroyed the altar, and took out 
some of the sacred vessels and buried them. The story 
was told that where these vessels were buried, trees in 
the shape of crosses grew up. But this did not satisfy 
the Spaniards. They put to death all whom they believed 
had a hand in this robbery, and they even burned some of 
them alive. This last act of cruelty caused the natives 
to make one more attempt to overcome their enemies, 
but, as in other such cases, they were defeated and pun- 
ished with fresh cruelties. 

82. Roldan's Rebellion. — The people who followed 
Columbus from Spain to Haiti were not such as would be 
likely to establish a successful colony. Criminals taken 
from the jails were dangerous when allowed to roam at 
will among a weak and simple people and were rebellious 
when kept in check. Priests and nobles were worse than 
useless in such a settlement when allowed to remain idle, 
and became morose and dissatisfied when compelled to 
work, even in the face of starvation. Columbus and his 
brothers Diego and Bartholomew were hated partly be- 
cause they were foreigners. The proud Spaniards did 
not want to be ruled by men of foreign birth. No doubt, 
too, Columbus had made mistakes. Possibly some had 



118 The Story of Columbus 

come to Haiti through what they regarded as his mis- 
representations. Many beheved that affairs in Haiti 
were badly managed. They were all certain they were 
not having as good times and were not getting rich as 
fast as they had hoped. It is easy to defend Columbus 
by pointing out that those who came after him were 
accused as he was and had just as much trouble with the 
rebellious spirits of their followers. But whether Colum- 
bus was at fault or not, there were always many dissatis- 
fied Spaniards who were ready to follow anyone who would 
rise up against him. The rule of Bartholomew, who was 
in command while Columbus was absent, was even less 
agreeable to the Spaniards than that of Columbus himself. 
Bartholomew was harsher in his manners and more 
unyielding in his demands. 

In the absence of Columbus, a man by the name of 
Roldan, whom he had made the chief judge on the island, 
put himself at the head of those who were dissatisfied. 
Word came from Spain that Columbus was now unpopular 
at the Court and they thought it safe to start a real rebel- 
lion. Bartholomew did not know how many would follow 
him and how many would follow Roldan in case it 
came to a real fight, so he did not dare to try to 
make him prisoner. The arrival of Columbus did not 
help much. In the end he and his brother came to the 
belief that it would not be safe to risk a fight with 
Roldan. Hence Columbus gave Roldan and his rebellious 
followers everything they wanted. Roldan was placed 
back in his office as chief judge of the island. Columbus 
did, however, try to send him back to Spain, but there was 
great difficulty in getting ships. After waiting awhile 



The Third Voyage 119 

Roldan made new demands, all of which were granted. 
One of these was that Roldan and his followers should 
receive certain stretches of land and that the natives 
should be made to work the land for them. This was 
really the beginning of the system which will be mentioned 
in the next section. 

Later Columbus wrote a letter to Spain, saying that 
he had signed his agreements with Roldan because he 
was compelled to do so and that therefore they should be 
regarded as of no value. In the same ship which carried 
this letter there were letters from Roldan and his followers 
which told a very different story. 

The King and the Queen were now very much puzzled 
to know which party was right, and we shall see a little 
later how the whole thing came out. 

In the meantime, Roldan went on working with Co- 
lumbus and they together subdued the natives thoroughly 
and also some rebellious Spaniards. Indeed, a very con- 
siderable number of these were hanged, and the colony 
was under very good control by the spring of 1500. 

83. Granting Land to the Spaniards. — The demands 
of Roldan led to a system of land-holding not unlike that 
used in Europe in earlier times. Large tracts of land were 
granted to his chief followers, each of whom was also 
given a certain number of natives to till the soil. The 
natives who were thus put to work on the land no longer 
had to bring gold to Isabella or Santo Domingo. Some 
native chiefs were even excused from sending in gold if 
they would furnish so many laborers. In this way the 
natives soon came to be slaves of those who owned the 
land. This system oppressed them so badly that in the 



120 The Story of Columbus 

end they were all killed off. Their fights with the Span- 
iards were over. They had been thoroughly defeated. 
They had lost their courage and made no more struggles 
against the slavery which the Spaniards were rapidly 
imposing upon them. 

84. Discoveries by Others than Columbus. — It will 
be remembered that a young Spaniard, by name Ojeda, 
took an important part in the second voyage of Columbus 
and that he had much to do with the defeat of the natives 
in the only really important battle which the Spaniards 
aver fought with them in Haiti — the battle of Vega Real. 
It will be remembered, too, that this same Ojeda captured 
Caonabo, the most warlike of the native chiefs. When 
the news of Columbus's discovery of the coast of Paria 
came to Spain in 1499, Ojeda was there. He heard with 
particular interest the story about the finding of pearls, 
and so he apphed to the treasurer of the Court for permis- 
sion to visit this coast. This permission was given, 
although the Court had previously promised Columbus 
that no one would be allowed to visit any of the lands he 
might discover except by permission of Columbus himself. 
It will be seen, therefore, that the Court was now breaking 
its promise. 

In the expedition of Ojeda there was a man by the 
name of Americus Vespucius. This man should be remem- 
bered because his name was finally given to the American 
continent. There were also many who had gone with 
Columbus on one or more of his voyages. They reached 
land east of the Orinoco River, sailed westward by using 
the charts that Columbus had made, passed through the 
Serpent's Mouth, then through the Dragon's Mouth, and 



The Third Voyage 121 

sailed westward along the coast of Paria, as Columbus 
had done. There they found a city built on piles driven 
into the water and called it Venezuela, after the city of 
Venice in Italy, which is built in this way. Ojeda then 
sailed northward to Haiti and finally returned to Spain. 

Another Spanish sailor named Nino sailed to the same 
coast and gathered many pearls. His was the first voyage 
to the new world that brought back enough treasure to 
pay the expense of the voyage. By the agreement between 
the Court and Columbus, he should have had a certain 
share of these pearls, but he did not receive any of them. 

It will be remembered that two brothers by the name 
of Pinzon went out with Columbus on his first voyage. 
One of these now got together a fleet of four ships and 
started to sail west and south, as Columbus had done on 
his second voyage. He struck the coast of South America 
in the neighborhood of the present Cape St. Augustine, 
which is the most easterly point of the continent. Then 
saihng northward, he discovered the Amazon River, whose 
volume of water was so great that even when the ships 
were out of sight of land the water was fresh enough to 
drink. Pinzon then sailed up to the Gulf by Paria, from 
there to the northern islands first discovered by Columbus, 
and then back again to Spain. 

A Spaniard by the name of Diego de Lepe sailed along 
the same course as Pinzon, but went farther south, a good 
ways below the Cape of St. Augustine. Then, there was 
another sailor, by the name of La Cosa, who was a good 
map maker. He went on a voyage to South America in 
search of pearls, and made the first fairly good map of 
the lands he visited. This same La Cosa also was with 



122 



The Story of Columbus 




MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA 



The Third Voyage 123 

Columbus on his second journey when they sailed along 
the south coast of Cuba, and he was one of the men 
who signed that curious paper swearing that they believed 
Cuba to be a part of Asia. It is interesting to note 
that La Cosa at one time swore to such a statement, while 
on his map he showed Cuba as an island. 

Americus Vespucius and Ojeda described what they 
saw in a practical way and not in a fanciful and sometimes 
superstitious way, as Columbus had done, and people 
were much interested in their descriptions. It was from 
the description by Americus Vespucius that people began 
to call the new land America. If Columbus had described 
the country he saw in a straightforward way instead of 
dreaming about the Garden of Eden and the mountain 
from which Solomon got his gold, it might have been 
called Columbia and our continents would now be known 
as South Columbia and North Columbia. However, as 
it is, we find the name Columbia scattered pretty much 
over all the country. There is the Republic of Colombia 
in South America. The District of Columbia, where the 
city of Washington is located, is named after Columbus, 
and we have cities called Columbus in many states of 
the Union. All of these places are, of course, named after 
Christopher Columbus, who, after all, was the real dis- 
coverer of land in the west. 

85. Public Opinion in Spain. — For some years com- 
plaints had reached Spain that Columbus was mismanag- 
ing the colony in Haiti. His enemies had been trying to 
get the King and Queen to believe this, but so far it seemed 
that they had not succeeded. However, he had many 
enemies within the Court and was becoming unpopular 



124 The Story of Columbus 

with the people outside. When starting on his third 
journey it was again necessary to fill his crews with crim- 
inals from the jails. 

Very little of the promised gold had been brought 
back, but Columbus continued to talk about the great 
riches which he and others were going to make out of the 
new lands. He spoke of using part of his own income to 
take Palestine, and especially Jerusalem, away from the 
Turks. People did not hke to hear a man talk like that 
when at the same time he failed to pay his sailors their 
wages. Columbus kept for himself most of the pearls which 
he got on the coast of Paria, and when he was asked why 
he did this he said that he wanted to keep the pearls until 
he could get an equal amount of gold, so as to make a good 
showing. This explanation did not satisfy the people in 
general. It looked as if he was more anxious to get rich 
than to do anything else. Columbus's two sons were now 
pages of the Queen, and as they passed through the streets 
the people hooted them. The sick and unpaid sailors 
wandered through the Court and stood under the palace 
window calling for their pay. 

There was also a good deal of talk about Columbus 
sending Indians to Spain as slaves. The story was told 
that he refused to have some natives baptized because 
then they would be Christians and could not be sold 
as slaves. 

86. The Queen Doubting Columbus. — From the very 
first the King and Queen had doubted whether it was wise 
to give Columbus the great powers which they gave him 
before he started on his first voyage. This doubt on the 
part of the King had been strengthened by the charges 



The Thikd Voyage 125 

which were made against Columbus again and again, and 
now the Queen began to doubt him also. She thought 
that something must be wrong or there would not be so 
many complaints against him. True enough, Columbus 
was a man who had the courage and the wisdom to start 
west, but, at the same time, was he able to govern a 
colony well? And if he was not able to govern a colony 
well, was it right for the King and Queen to keep him as 
governor, even if he had been promised that he and his 
sons and his sons' sons should forever govern all the lands 
that he might discover? Roldan's rebellion brought this 
question up more clearly than ever. At this time a num- 
ber of Roldan's friends came to Spain and, of course, they 
told the Court that Columbus was entirely unfit to govern 
the colony. Columbus also continued to send home slaves 
against the wishes of the Queen, and it is stated that 
she became so angry that he would have been disgraced 
at once had she not remembered the great services 
which he had rendered to Spain by discovering the lands 
beyond the ocean. 

There is no doubt that the Spaniards had treated the 
Indians very badly and brutally, and Columbus was 
blamed for it all. It is not at all certain that it was just 
to lay all the blame on Columbus. It is very doubtful 
whether any man could have succeeded in so controlling 
those unruly Spaniards that the natives would not have 
been abused. Certainly none of the men who followed 
Columbus as governors of the Spanish colonies succeeded 
in doing this; but his enemies used exactly those argu- 
ments with the Queen which they thought would be useful 
in setting her against him. 



126 The Story of Columbus 

At this very time a letter arrived from Columbus 
requesting that he might be given permission to continue 
the sending home of slaves for two years more. The Queen 
answered this letter by saying that she had ordered all 
the slaves which had been sold in Spain to be sent back 
to the West Indies. She called the Indians her people, 
and would not consent to have them sold as slaves. 

It is, of course, clear why Columbus was so anxious 
to sell these slaves. By so doing, not only could he himself 
get a share of the money for which they were sold, but he 
hoped also to show a profit for those who provided ships 
and money for his voyages. 

87. A Judge Sent to Haiti. — At the same time that 
Columbus asked to be permitted to go on selling slaves 
for two years more, he also asked that a judge be sent out 
to decide between him and Roldan. The King at once 
appointed a man by the name of Bobadilla, who had been 
an officer in the Court, to go to Haiti as judge. The affair 
was managed very differently from the way Columbus 
had expected. We cannot now be certain just what orders 
the King gave Bobadilla. Not all of the orders were put 
down in writing. He carried one letter from the King, 
directed to Columbus, which read in part as follows: 

"We have directed Francisco Bobadilla, the bearer of this, to tell 
you for us, of certain things to be mentioned by him. We ask you to give 
faith and credence to what he says, and to obey him." 

The expression, 'Ho obey him," of course meant that 
Bobadilla was now to have higher power than Columbus. 
Nevertheless, we must not forget that Bobadilla was to 
be judge of the trouble between Roldan and Columbus, 
and was not sent out to find fault with Columbus or do 



The Third Voyage 127 

him harm. We do not know what the King and Queen 
had told Bobadilla to tell Columbus. That was done by 
word of mouth, and we shall never know just what it was. 
It may have been a clever trick on the part of the King 
and Queen to arrange things this way, so that in case 
things did not go as intended, they would not be blamed. 
There is no question, however, but that Bobadilla treated 
Columbus with much greater brutality than there was 
any need of. Wlien he came to Santo Domingo, Columbus 
was not there, but a great many people who hated Colum- 
bus were there. The criminals from Spanish jails whom 
Columbus had brought out were now there to tell stories 
about him who had tried to keep them from being as 
vicious against the natives as they liked to be. Such 
people would not be likely to tell the exact truth nor to 
come reasonably near it. Bobadilla apparently listened 
to all they had to say and acted as if he believed them and 
as if there were no need of gathering further evidence as 
to just what the facts were. Columbus, who was out in 
the island away from Santo Domingo, had no chance 
whatsoever at that time to tell his side of the story. 

88. Columbus in Chains and Prison.— The first thing 
that Bobadilla did after listening to these stories was to 
read to Diego Columbus his letter from the King, to show 
that now Columbus would have to obey him. Bobadilla 
then went to live in Columbus's house. He took every- 
thing that he could find in the way of money or valuables, 
whether it belonged to Columbus or to the Crown. He 
used the money to pay the debts of Columbus in Santo 
Domingo, and this, of course, made him popular. Boba- 
dilla was now completely in power. Diego was placed in 



128 The Story of Columbus 

chains and put on board one of the ships. As soon as 
Columbus himself came to Santo Domingo he also was 
put in chains and placed in a stone tower which was used 
as a prison. That tower is still standing and visitors are 
now shown the place where Columbus lay in chains. 
Bartholomew, the other brother of Columbus, was also 
imprisoned and placed on a ship. It was the purpose of 
Bobadilla to keep these men separated so that they could 
not make any plans among themselves. Columbus him- 
self thought that they were. going to kill him. When an 
officer came to take him out of prison and place him on 
board a ship to go back to Spain, he asked, '^ Where are 
you taking me?" ''To embark on the ship," was the 
answer. Said Columbus, ''Is that the truth?" "It is 
true," replied the officer, who was captain of the ship. 
Columbus now knew that he would after all see Spain and 
her King and Queen once more. As soon as the ship left, 
the captain, who was a humane man, wanted to take the 
chains off his prisoner, but Columbus would not let him. 
He said, "No. These chains have been placed on me by 
Bobadilla, on orders of the King, and they shall not be 
taken off until the King orders them to be taken off." 
So Columbus crossed the Atlantic, chained as a murderer 
might be. They had fine weather and a quick voyage, 
and reached Spain early in the year 1500. 

89. How Columbus was Received in Spain. — Seven 
years earher, when Columbus returned from his first 
voyage, he was greeted and received like a king. It was 
then a common thing to see him with the King and the 
Prince riding through the streets of the city. Now he 
returned a prisoner in chains. His enemies liked this, 



The Third Voyage 129 

but there were many others who believed that he had 
been greatly wronged, and there was popular feeling in 
his favor. Pity was awakened on all sides, and this pity 
extended even to the Court. Just after landing, he wrote 
a letter to a lady at the Court, who he knew would show 
it to the Queen. In the very beginning of this letter he 
wrote: ^'I have now reached that point where I beheve 
that there is no man so low but who thinks it is right to 
insult me." By order from the King, the chains were 
promptly taken off, and Columbus was given money with 
which to make himself ready to come to the Court. We 
shall never know whether Bobadilla had done things to 
Columbus which the King and Queen had not ordered him 
to do, or whether they now had changed their minds. It 
is not unlikely that the general feeling in favor of Columbus 
had affected them. 

The meeting of Columbus with the King and Queen 
was sad and touching. The Queen wept, and Columbus 
fell on the ground at her feet. Columbus had a very 
peculiar type of mind. In the letter which we have just 
mentioned he said that he knew no reason why he should 
be imprisoned. Now, in talking to the Court, he men- 
tioned all the reasons for his imprisonment which his 
enemies ever had stated, and he tried to show that he had 
not been at fault in any of them. Evidently he had for- 
gotten the letter, and so had the King and Queen, and 
they pitied him. They made promises of money, and said 
that his power should be restored to him; but Columbus 
was never to be viceroy of the Indies again. 

90. Eighteen Months in Spain. — Columbus was now to 
spend eighteen months in Spain before he could go on 
9 



130 The Story of Columbus 

another voyage. He continued to urge the King and Queen 
to make him viceroy again and to send him out to Haiti. 
To this the King said that he now had a great many ene- 
mies in Haiti, that the island was in a turmoil and that 
the wisest thing to do would be to wait until order was 
restored. This seemed not unreasonable to Columbus 
and he became more content to wait. 

The mistake in making the first agreement with Colum- 
bus as sweeping as it was now became more and more 
clear. Spain was in a hurry to explore as much of the new 
world as possible because both Portugal and England were 
sending out expeditions, and the Court did not want to 
wait for Columbus's consent before sending out other 
explorers. As we have seen, the agreement had already 
been broken when Ojeda, La Cosa, Lepe, and Pinzon 
were sent out on different expeditions. It has been said 
that the King was anxious to bring Columbus into disgrace, 
for by so doing he would be able to keep on sending out 
expeditions when and where he pleased. The one-tenth 
of all the profits, which was to go to Columbus, also turned 
out in the long run to be no small affair. It would indeed 
be surprising if a contract of this sort should not be broken. 
That one individual and his heirs should have a right 
forever to one-tenth of all the profits which might be 
made by trading with all the lands which this one indi- 
vidual might discover, was surely a very dangerous contract 
to make. While Columbus was in Spain the agreement 
with him continued to be broken. Ojeda started out to 
make a settlement in Venezuela. There he had about as 
much trouble as Columbus had in Haiti. His people quar- 
reled among themselves, abused and insulted the natives, 



The Third Voyage 131 

and finally overpowered Ojeda and sent him a prisoner to 
Haiti. That was just what had happened to Columbus. 

Conditions had changed since Columbus made his first 
voyage; now there were many sailors who could go across 
the ocean and explore the coasts of the new world. 
Columbus was no longer needed; and it is the experience 
of the world that very seldom do we go on paying tribute 
to one who is no longer rendering service, no matter how 
great his services have been in the past. 

It may be, too, that the King and Queen were entirely 
sincere in their argument that Columbus should not be 
given his rights again until conditions in Haiti had been 
changed for the better. There are reasons for thinking just 
that. When Columbus was sent on his fourth voyage he was 
forbidden to go to Haiti on his way out, but was permitted 
to go there on his way back. Evidently it was thought that, 
by the time of his return, conditions would have changed 
so that there would be no danger in his going there. 

On the whole, while in Spain, Columbus lived unnoticed 
and in poverty. The only thing he could do was to hope 
for better things to come later, and hoping for better 
things to come later was not new to Columbus. He had 
done that for many years before his first voyage. 

91. A New Governor for Haiti. — In Haiti things were 
going as badly as ever. Bobadilla tried to be lenient with 
the Spaniards. One of his charges against Columbus was 
that he had handled the settlers too severely. But the 
settlers whom Columbus had brought out were not the 
kind of people who could be handled with leniency. As 
soon as they had little fear of being punished they treated 
the natives more cruelly than ever. Very soon it became 



132 The Story of Columbus 

certain that Bobadilla did not succeed any better than 
Columbus, if, indeed, he did as well. So it became neces- 
sary to send another governor to Haiti to replace Boba- 
dilla. A man by the name of Ovando was selected for 
this post. Ovando left with a fleet of thirty ships and 
twenty-five hundred persons. A new type of people was 
now being sent over. There were on longer merely single 
men, who were generally adventurers and often criminals. 
Many of the new settlers were men with wives and 
families who came to the new world to build homes and 
make a living. There were, however, entirely too many 
nobles in this expedition^ — men who would not work — 
but, taken all in all, it was made up of a much better 
type of people than those taken out by Columbus, espe- 
cially those who came on the first and third voyages. 

Of the thirty ships that sailed with Ovando many were 
large, and Columbus was obliged to look upon an expedi- 
tion very much larger and more elegant than any that he 
had taken out. While Ovando was dressed in silks and 
satins Columbus was wearing the simple robe of a monk. 
He had neither money nor power, but the King promised 
that any property he had in Haiti should be returned to 
him, and he was allowed to select a man to see to it that 
this promise was carried out. It was now the purpose to 
send to Haiti something of the style and pomp of an 
European Court, to see what might come of that. 

92. Negro Slavery in Haiti. — Ovando was allowed to 
take some negroes to Haiti to serve as slaves. While 
Isabella would not have her subjects, as she called the 
natives of the West Indies, sold as slaves in Spain, she 
was willing to have negroes sold as slaves in Haiti. It 



The Third Voyage 133 

looks as though it was not the idea of slavery which the 
Queen disliked, but rather the idea that her people should 
be sold as slaves anywhere. It may be also that the Span- 
iards began to see even this early that the Indians were 
not fitted for the heaviest work in the mines. The negroes 
were so much better workers than the Indians that within 
a few years numbers of them were sent over. As the 
natives died rapidly under the harsh treatment of the 
Spaniards negroes took their places, so that finally all the 
slaves in the islands were of negro blood. It is now a long 
time since the last Indian in the islands discovered by 
Columbus passed away. 

93. Writings of Columbus While in Spain. — During 
this stay in Spain, Columbus wrote a most peculiar little 
book, the manuscript of which has come down to us but all 
of which has never been printed. He referred to his early 
arguments to show that the earth was round, that he was 
led to believe it was round because of certain reasons which 
he had then stated and by means of which he got people 
to believe in him and finally to help him get up a small 
fleet for his first voyage. Now, he said that this was all 
a mistake ; that these were not really the reasons that made 
him believe the earth was round, but that God had ap- 
peared directly to him and had told him all these things, 
and that he had been appointed directly by God to go 
west and find Asia. (God seems to have left him in the 
belief that it was Asia and not America that lay on the 
west side of the Atlantic.) He said that now there was 
only one great thing left to do, and that was to take 
Jerusalem from the Turks. He believed that he had been 
appointed by God to do this work also. He said he be- 



134 The Story of Columbus 

lieved his troubles in the Indies were all due to the devil, 
because the devil knew that if Columbus succeeded there 
and got enough wealth, then he would go at the head of 
another expedition and take Jerusalem from the Turks, 
and the devil, of course, wanted Jerusalem to be in the 
hands of the Turks. 

We now know, of course, that the arguments about the 
shape of the earth which Columbus used in his earher life 
were entirely sound, and it seems a pity that in his more 
advanced years he should have given them up. But one 
cannot be certain whether or not the man was entirely 
sane. We must remember, too, that in the days of Colum- 
bus there was a great deal more talk of the kind we find 
in this book than there is nowadays. It is hard to be 
certain of the reasons why Columbus did what he did at 
various times of his life. It may be he thought that by 
promising to go at the head of an expedition to take Jeru- 
salem from the Turks, he would get the church on his side, 
and in those days the church was very powerful, indeed. It 
is hard to think that a man, as intelligent as Columbus 
was in some ways, could really believe all that he wrote 
down during these months of depression and sadness. 

At this time he also wrote a very interesting letter to 
a bank in Genoa, the city of his birth. He made copies 
of all the papers that had been given him, showing the 
powers and rights that had been granted him, and these 
he sent to the bank in Genoa for safe keeping, together 
with the letter just mentioned. These papers are still 
kept in Genoa. In this letter he says that one-tenth of 
the wealth which may come from his possessions should 
be given to the city of Genoa for the purpose of helping 



The Third Voyage 



135 




136 The Story of Columbus 

to buy bread and other necessities for the poor. Surely, 
Columbus was a remarkable sailor! This man who had 
lived nearly all his life in the utmost poverty, who could 
not pay his just debts, and who did not have enough 
wherewith to clothe himself decently, was proposing to 
use his wealth for all time to come to provide food to 
the needy people of his native city. 

94. Preparation for the Fourth Voyage. — All this time, 
however, Columbus had been thinking in a sensible way 
about geography. He felt sure that Cuba was a part of 
Asia and that the lands to the south were all islands. 
The great current which flowed westward both on the 
south side of Cuba and along the coast of Paria made him 
feel certain that there must be a strait through to the 
west ; for what could become of all the water flowing west- 
ward if it did not flow out through a strait? So he wanted 
to go on another voyage to find this strait. The King 
thought it might be well to test out this theory, especially 
since the Portuguese had now sailed to India by way of 
the south coast of Africa. If the same land they had found 
could be reached by going through a strait just west of 
the lands discovered by Columbus the Spaniards would 
have a much shorter route than the Portuguese. Possibly, 
also, he was glad to get rid of Columbus, who while in 
Spain would never stop seeking to have his rights restored. 
As we have seen before, he was requested not to go to 
Haiti on the way out, but might stop there on his return 
journey. The King and the Queen assured him that later 
on all his rights would be given back to him. So, with a 
fleet of four small vessels and about one hundred and 
fifty men, Columbus started on his fourth voyage. 



CHAPTER V 

The Fourth Voyage 

95. The Outward Journey. — When Columbus started 
on his fourth voyage early in May, 1502, he intended to 
sail around the world. He expected to pass through the 
strait which he supposed was somewhere south and west 
of Cuba, through the Indian Ocean and around the south 
end of Africa. The arrangements which the King and 
Queen made seem to show that they did not altogether 
trust him. They sent along a man by the name of Porras, 
whose duty it was to keep a complete list of all the pearls, 
gold, and other valuable articles which Columbus might 
find. This Porras had a shrewd, cunning httle mind. He 
was a mischief maker by nature and we shall see that he 
caused Columbus no end of trouble before they came back. 
They also instructed Columbus that he should not take 
a single slave. 

Columbus was now no longer as strong and vigorous 
as in his younger days ; he had led a hard life, and he was 
gradually growing weaker. He no doubt felt this himself, 
and anxiously hoped that this time, at last, he might 
succeed in doing something really great. As he started 
out he wrote in his Journal: 

" Now my voyage will be made in the name of the Holy Trinity and I 
hope for success." 

There seemed to be in his mind a feeling that, after all, he 
had not succeeded. But in spite of bodily weakness, ap- 
proaching old age, and misfortune, his spirit was unbroken. 

137 



138 



The Story of Columbus 



On his way from Spain to the Canaries, Columbus 
touched on the coast of Africa to help some Portuguese 
who were being hard pressed by the Moors; but on reach- 
ing the place he found the Moors had gone, and so he 
continued his voyage westward and reached the island of 
Martinique, in the West Indies, on June fifteenth. The 
course of his journey will be seen from the map shown here. 




MAP SHOWING COURSE OF FOURTH OUTWARD VOYAGE 

96. At Santo Domingo. — We have already stated that 
the King and Queen refused Columbus permission to stop 
at Santo Domingo on his way out. This request was made 
in a very polite and considerate form and reads as follows : 

"It is not fit that you should lose so much time; it is much better that 
you should go another way, though if it should be necessary and God is 
willing, you may stay there [in Haiti] a httle while on your return." 

Columbus now decided to disobey this instruction and 
sail northward along pretty much the same course that 
he followed in his second voyage. On June twenty-ninth 
his ships arrived off the port of Santo Domingo, in the 
Island of Haiti. He gave as his reason that one of his 



The Fourth Voyage 139 

ships was a bad sailer and that he wanted to try to trade 
it off for a better one; but it is more Ukely that his real 
reason was a desire to learn how his affairs were getting 
on in the island. He stopped his ships outside the port 
and sent in a rowboat to ask permission to come in, which 
the governor, Ovando, refused. 

In the harbor there was then lying a small fleet ready 
to sail for Spain. This fleet had on board more treasure 
in gold and other articles of value than any fleet that had 
been sent from Haiti to Spain. On one of these ships was 
Roldan, whom we will remember as the judge who started 
a rebellion against Columbus a few years earlier, and there 
was also Bobadilla, the man who was sent out from Spain 
to decide between Columbus and Roldan. The story goes 
that these two men were on board the same ship. In 
another ship there was a considerable quantity of gold, 
about four thousand pieces, belonging to Columbus. We 
are told that Columbus believed a great storm was coming 
on and that he warned them against the storm. The 
warning was not heeded and the ships started towards 
Spain. These ships had scarcely got beyond the eastern 
end of Haiti when a terrific storm broke loose and the 
ship which carried Bobadilla and Roldan went down and 
all on board were drowned. Other ships also went down 
or were driven back to Santo Domingo. One only of the 
ships went on to Spain and that, the stories tell us, was 
the one carrying the gold belonging to Columbus. Colum- 
bus had not been permitted to enter the harbor even during 
the storm, and his ships had to stay outside and weather 
it as best they could. However, they crept close to the 
coast and came out of it all right. 



140 



The Story of Columbus 



97. On the Coast of Honduras. — Columbus now left 
Haiti and sailed westward. He touched at a small island 
near Jamaica and then for four days sailed directly west. 
Finding no land, he began to be doubtful where to go. He 




MAP SHOWING COURSE ALONG CENTRAL AMERICA, FOURTH VOYAGE 

turned northward and touched the shore of Cuba in the 
locality of the Queen's Gardens and then southwest again to 
an island about forty miles north of Honduras. From this 
place he could see the mountains of what we now know 
as Central America. Two weeks later, he landed on the 
north coast of Honduras, at the place shown in the map. 



The Fourth Voyage 



141 



On the coast of Honduras Columbus found a higher 
type of people than any he had met on his earlier voyages. 
They were more skillful in making their implements and 





WEAPONS USED BY NATIVES OF VEBAGUA 



their clothing and in building their houses. They had 
finer canoes than he had seen before. They made the 
finest of cotton cloth and they knew how to work copper 
into bells, hatchets, and other things they needed. They 
had swords, and clubs tipped with a pecuHar kind of rock. 



142 The Story of Columbus 

With these weapons they later became dangerous enemies 
of the Spaniards. 

One of the canoes which came out to meet them was 
eight feet wide and very long. It was covered in the 
middle with a canopy and belonged to a native King who 
apparently came from the north. These people had many 
gold ornaments, and when Columbus asked them where 
they got the gold they pointed to the west. Columbus 
believed that this rich country was the same India that 
Da Gama had found a few years earher and that by going 
farther south he would come to a strait which he thought 
would lead him directly into the Indian Ocean and which 
he supposed the natives had told him about on his third 
voyage. For this reason he sailed east rather than west, 
following the coast as shown on the map. If he had gone 
to the west and north he would have found the rich coun- 
try of Mexico which in later years gave to Spain great 
treasures. When Columbus turned east he believed that 
the coast would soon turn south and lead to a strait. 
When at last it did turn to the south he named the cape 
around which he sailed ^^Gracias a Dios," which means, 
'^Thanks be to God." 

We, of course, know that there was no such strait at 
all as the one he was looking for. The nearest to a strait 
now is the Panama Canal, which the Americans have 
constructed across the Isthmus of Panama, along which 
we shall soon find Columbus sailing. Columbus might 
have figured out, however, that the great current flowing 
westward along the coast of Honduras could reasonably 
be supposed to lead to a strait if there was one. But, 
instead of going with the current, Columbus sailed against 



The Foukth Voyage 143 

it. The current along the coast of Honduras was very 
strong and there was also a wind from the west, and Colum- 
bus spent forty days going from the place where he had 
first landed to the cape mentioned above. In six weeks 
he traveled a distance of less than two hundred miles. 
They then sailed along what is now called the Mosquito 
Coast, and on October seventeenth they landed at a place 
which they called Veragua. Here they found houses built 
of stone and mortar and the walls decorated with carvings 
and pictures. They traded trinkets for gold, and indeed 
they found more gold here than they had anywhere since 
they discovered the new world. But Columbus was now 
very anxious to find the strait, and so he left even the gold 
in order not to lose time. About October thirtieth they 
passed the place where the Panama Canal now opens into 
the Caribbean Sea. On November second they reached 
a harbor, which they called Porto Bello. They were now 
short of food. By this time Columbus began to fear he 
would not find the strait. His ships were badly bored by 
the worms and had suffered from hard sailing. His men 
were anxious to return to the gold on the coast of Veragua. 
So on December fifth they turned around, and, as bad 
luck would have it, the wind -turned around too and again 
they had to sail against it. A great storm arose from 
which they suffered for several days until they took refuge 
in the mouth of a river which they called the Bethlehem 
River. This river is now called the Veragua. Along this 
coast there are very heavy rains at certain seasons of the 
year, and it now started to rain in dead earnest. The 
Bethlehem River rose suddenly and carried the ships out 
into the ocean. 



144 The Story of Columbus 

98. The Settlement at Veragua. — When Columbus 
gave up hope of finding the strait he began to gather 
gold. He sent his brother Bartholomew to hunt for 
gold mines, and he also sent people up and down the 
coast, but nowhere could they find as much gold as in 
Veragua. Here, then, Columbus thought must be the 
place from which all the gold from the east really came, 
and he decided to make a settlement here. They took 
all sorts of necessary things ashore and started to build 
a small village. Eighty men were to live here and 
collect gold while Columbus should go to Spain for 
more supplies. Then the river went down just as sud- 
denly as it had risen, for the dry season had set in, and 
the ships which were lying in the river could not be 
gotten out to sea. 

While they were trying to get them out of the river, they 
found that the native King was making plans to kill all 
the Spaniards who were to be left behind. Bartholomew 
at once attacked the natives with a number of armed 
men. This was done so suddenly that the King and his 
men were made prisoners. By this time Columbus had 
gotten the ships out of the mouth of the river and Bar- 
tholomew sent the King and the other prisoners in a canoe 
to be taken to the ships lying outside. The prisoners 
were tied so they could not escape. The King begged to 
have his hands tied less tightly, because they hurt him, 
and the Spaniards loosened the rope. This was a trick of 
the King, for when it got dark he slipped the rope off his 
hands, jumped out of the canoe, and dived under the 
surface of the water. The Spaniards thought he had 
drowned and the rest of the prisoners were taken to the 



The Fourth Voyage 145 

ships and placed in prison. One night the prisoners broke 
loose and very nearly escaped. They were caught, how- 
ever, and put back into prison. By the next morning 
they had all killed themselves. Columbus now discovered 
that these were not the same kind of people he had 
found on the other islands; that they were fierce and 
determined and very dangerous. He thought, however, 
that he had taught them a lesson and that he need no 
longer have great fear of them. So he decided to go ahead 
with the settlement; but, as had happened so often before, 
some of the Spaniards who were to be left behind refused 
to obey their leader and real trouble started. Again the 
natives tried to attack them, and the danger was all the 
while growing greater for the Spaniards. For some time 
the weather was so bad that the men in the ships were 
unable to visit the settlement. When at last a boat did 
get through, the captain determined to go on up the river 
beyond the settlement, though he was warned that there 
were native warriors on both sides of the river who would 
likely attack him. He had not gone far when the natives 
killed all of his party except one. 

The situation now looked so dangerous that it was 
decided to give up the settlement. The food and other 
things which had been brought ashore for the settlement 
were taken to the ships on rafts. One ship was so worm- 
eaten that it was left- to lie in the mouth of the Veragua 
River. Columbus now sailed away from the place, where 
he had spent about three and a half months. This 
place is worthy of note, since it was the first spot on the 
mainland of the new world where people from Europe 
tried to make a settlement. This, too, is the place from 

10 



146 The Story of Columbus 

which the family of Columbus later got its title. His 
descendants are now called Dukes of Veragua. 

For a long time Columbus had thought that he saw 
visions. While waiting for Bartholomew and his men to 
come to the ships, he believed he saw more visions, which 
he described in a long letter to the Queen. He said that 
a voice came to him and told him to take courage, for he 
was in the service of God. What God had done, said the 
voice, for men like Moses and David, that would God 
now do for him. Curiously enough, this voice also spoke 
of the name of Columbus as being known throughout the 
earth. Curiously, also, it spoke of the country where he 
was as India and not as a new continent. ^^ Remember 
David," said the voice, ''how he was a shepherd and was 
made king. Remember Abraham, how he was a hundred 
years old when his first son was born." ''And," said the 
voice, "there is use still for those who are old." It is 
hard to believe that the man who wrote this was not 
half mad. 

After his terrible experiences with the fierce natives 
he wrote, "There is not in the world a country whose 
people are more timid, there is a very good harbor, a 
beautiful river, and the whole place may easily be put 
into a state of defense." We cannot now think that all 
this man said should be fully trusted. He said one thing 
at one time and exactly the opposite at another time. 
Surely the memory of Columbus was bad, or he did not 
at all times tell the truth. 

99. From Veragua to Jamaica. — Columbus decided to 
go to Haiti, as his ships were in such bad condition that 
it was not safe to try to cross the Atlantic in them. He 



The Fourth Voyage 



147 



did not sail straight for Haiti, however, but went eastward 
along the coast. When he arrived at Porto Bello he had 
to abandon another ship because it would no longer stay 
afloat, and this left him with only two ships. He then 
continued eastward as far as the Gulf of Darien, and from 
that point headed his ships north. The reason that 
Columbus did not go directly from Veragua to Haiti was 
that he wished to confuse the crew so that none of them 
would know how to go 
back to Veragua. He 
remembered that some 
who had sailed with him 
when he discovered the 
pearl coast of Paria had 
gone there later to hunt 
for pearls on their own 
account. He wished to 
prevent any of his crew 
from going back to Vera- 
gua to get the gold which 
he had found there. He even took away the maps that 
they had, and all descriptions of the course of their journey, 
so that he would be the only one who would know how 
to find Veragua again. 

Columbus hoped to sail directly from the Gulf of 
Darien to Haiti, but the current carried him westward and 
he struck the coast of Cuba near the Queen's Gardens. 
The crews were now nearly starving, for their provisions 
had spoiled during their long stay in the very warm coun- 
try. In Cuba, however, they got fruit and other things 
to eat. They sailed eastward, but the ships were leaking 




MAP SHOWING COURSE OF VOYAGE FROM VERA- 
GUA TO HAITI 



148 The Story of Columbus 

so badly that the pumps were kept going all the while, 
and they used pots and kettles to bail the water out of 
them. The ships were in such bad condition that it was 
with the greatest difficulty that they could be made to 
sail at all. When they approached the west end of Jamaica 
it was no longer possible to go on and the ships were run up 
on the beach. They were placed side by side so they could 
be tied together with ropes. The place where the ships were 
run ashore has ever since been called Don Christopher's 
Cove. Here Columbus and his crew stayed one long year. 
100. Living One Year on Stranded Ships. — While 
Columbus remained in Jamaica his most important helper 
was a daring young Spaniard by the name of Diego 
Mendez. He had already showed his courage and ability 
earlier on this journey. When the ships were lying in 
the river at Veragua, Mendez went alone into the camp of 
the savages and found out that they were getting ready 
to attack the Spaniards. It was he who made the plan 
for attacking them by night, and this we have seen was so 
successful that the King and his men were taken prisoners. 
He took part in some of the fiercest fighting in Veragua 
and was always the first to act whenever there was danger. 
Mendez was very much like that other young Spaniard, 
Ojeda, about whom we have heard before. When Colum- 
bus found himself stranded on the coast of Jamaica he 
sent Mendez in command of a party to search for food. 
As soon as they collected as much food as one man could 
carry they sent him back to the ships, and the rest of the 
party went on to collect more food. In this way the men 
finally had all been sent back and Mendez went on alone. 
He soon found a native King, with whom he became 



The Fourth Voyage 149 

friendly, and they got together much food. Natives were 
sent to carry it back to the ships. Then Mendez got a 
large canoe on the eastern end of Jamaica and some natives 
to help him paddle it back to the ships. From this time on 
food came in plentifully. As soon as they had secured food 
Columbus began to make plans to get away from the island ; 
but he was to live a whole year on the stranded ships. 

loi. Mendez Goes to Haiti. — The nearest place where 
he could get help was Haiti, but between Jamaica and 
Haiti there is forty miles of open sea. The only means 
by which they could go were Indian canoes, but these were 
built to paddle around in quiet waters and were very 
dangerous on a rough sea. Columbus asked for volunteers 
to undertake the journey, and Mendez was the only one 
who offered to go. They got another Spaniard, and six 
Indians to help paddle the single canoe in which they 
started. As they passed along the south coast of Jamaica, 
they were continually threatened by natives along the 
shore. At last the whole party was captured, but Mendez 
got away and returned alone to the ships. They decided, 
however, to try again. Some other Spaniards offered to 
go along and they took two canoes and enough Indians 
to paddle them. 

Bartholomew with a party of men followed them along 
the shore to guard against attacks by the natives. When 
they reached the east end of Jamaica he turned back and 
the canoes started out over the open ocean. It took them 
four days to paddle over this forty miles of open water. 
No one could sleep easily in the open canoes, and the 
water splashed in and spoiled their food. They could 
not carry enough drinking water, and one of the In- 



150 The Story of Columbus 

dians died of thirst. They finally reached the western 
coast of Haiti. 

102. A Letter of Columbus. — Before Mendez started 
on this journey Columbus told him that if he were to reach 
Haiti he should get one or more ships and send them to 
Jamaica, and that he himself should go on to Spain. He 
wrote a very curious letter, which he gave Mendez to 
carry to the Court of Spain. This letter began, 

"I send this letter by means of and by the hands of Indians. It will 
be a miracle if it reaches its destination." 

He must, of course, have had in mind the natives whom 
they got to help paddle the canoes. In this letter he tells 
about the fourth voyage, and he also goes over again the 
discouraging days of his early life. He refers to the 
years in Spain when he was trying to get ships for his first 
voyage. He talks about the people who then made fun 
of him; ''but now," he says, ''everybody, even the tailors, 
are trying to become discoverers." He speaks about the 
neglect of him in Spain after he had been sent back in 
chains, and then goes on: "The twenty years of service 
through which I have passed with so much toil and danger 
have profited me nothing and at this very day I do not 
even have a roof in Spain that I can call my own. If I 
wish to eat or sleep I have nowhere to go except to a poor 
hotel and most times I do not have the money with which 
to pay my bills. It wrings my very heart strings when I 
think of my son, Diego, whom I have left an orphan in 
Spain without a house or property which is due him on 
my account, although I had thought it certain that the 
King and the Queen as just and faithful Princes would 
give back to him all of these things with interest. 



The Fourth Voyage 151 

''I was twenty-eight [thirty-eight] years old when I 
began to serve you. Now I have not a hair on my head 
that is not gray, my body is weak, and all that was left 
to me and my brothers has been taken away and sold, 
to my great dishonor; even the clothes which I wore." 

Then, speaking of his present condition, he says, 
''Here I am on a far island all alone in my troubles and daily 
expecting death, with Indians all about me who are full of 
cruelty. Weep for me, whoever has charity, truth and justice." 

Then he goes over once more the old geographical 
problems which he had talked so much about when he was 
younger. He repeats that the world is small (we now 
know that Columbus thought it was much smaller than it 
really is). He says, ''Out of seven parts of it the dry parts 
occupy six and water occupies only one." "I say," he con- 
tinued, "the world is not as large as people suppose it is." 

Then he talks about gold and Heaven in the same 
sentence: "Gold is the most precious of all things and he 
who has gold has all he needs in this world and all the 
means of getting his soul into Heaven." He talks about 
the riches of Veragua. "I can simply say that to my 
mind my people who are now going back to Spain carry 
the best message that was ever sent to Spain." This was 
the rambling, curious letter which Columbus gave to 
Mendez. It shows a tired and discouraged man thinking 
of his own hard life, full of disappointments and worry 
about his family. 

103. Mutiny of Porras. — After Mendez had left for 
Haiti new troubles broke out. As usual, some of the 
men began to mistreat the natives. Columbus was 
very anxious to keep them friendly so they would 



152 The Story of Columbus 

continue to bring food. He therefore punished these 
unruly Spaniards rather severely and they became angry 
and rebellious. 

We now recall the man Porras who was sent out with 
Columbus to keep a record of all the valuable things which 
they might find on the voyage. Porras placed himself 
at the head of that part of the crew who were ready to 
join in open rebellion. He said that Columbus had been 
sent away from Spain and would not be allowed to return. 
He told the ignorant crews that the King and Queen had 
forbidden him to come back to Spain and that Mendez 
had been sent on to try to get them to permit him to do so. 
The rebels fitted up canoes, stored them with food and 
started for Haiti. Columbus was sick, as were many of 
the crews, and these stayed behind along with others who 
remained loyal. The rebels were good sailors on large 
ships but did not know how to. handle canoes. They had 
gone a few miles from the east end of Jamaica when a 
storm came up and they did not dare go on. They found 
that the canoes were loaded too heavily, and threw the 
provisions overboard. Then they threw out some of the 
Indians. These were very good swimmers and they would 
swim after the canoes and take hold of them. Then the 
Spaniards chopped off their hands. In this way they 
disposed of all the natives except those that were abso- 
lutely necessary to paddle the canoes. Porras turned 
back and waited a month for a calm sea and then tried 
once more to cross over. But another storm arose and 
they gave up all hope of reaching Haiti. 

104. Those Left on the Ships. — Not all the men who 
stayed with Columbus on the ship were weak and sick. 



The Fourth Voyage 153 

There were some strong, true men who would not leave 
him, and they now had all they could do to get food for 
the sick and to take care of them. During this time of 
great danger the people on the ships came to understand 
that they must not quarrel among themselves but must 
work together like brothers if they were to live at all. 

The natives soon grew tired of bringing food. In the 
beginning they would trade a good deal of food for simple 
things, such as bells and other shining trinkets, but they 
soon had enough of these. It was now learned that Porras 
and his men were roaming over the island and that the 
natives who had been sending food to Columbus were 
now compelled to give then- food to the rebels. The men 
on the ships were very near starvation. 

105. Columbus Predicts an Eclipse. — It was in the 
month of February, 1504. Columbus knew from his 
calendar that there would be an eclipse of the moon on 
February twenty-ninth of that year, so he decided to 
make use of that fact to scare the natives into bringing 
food. He sent out messages to have all the native Kings 
come to the shore where his ships were on that day. Then 
he told them that the God of the Spaniards no longer 
liked the Indians, because they would not bring food to 
his people; that this God had decided to take away the 
moon so it would no longer shine for them by night. As 
the evening came on, the terrified natives began to see a 
black shadow creep over the face of the moon. This 
shadow crept farther and farther over the moon and the 
bright shining part became smaller and smaller. This 
terrified the natives so much that they began to call upon 
Columbus, telling him that they would do anything he 



154 The Story of Columbus 

wanted them to do, if he only would save the moon for 
them. Columbus replied that he would go into his little 
house on the ship and call to the God of the Spaniards 
to see if he could not get him to give back the moon to 
the Indians. After staying in the cabin for a while he 
came out and said that the God of the Spaniards had told 
him he would give back the moon to the Indians if they 
would promise to give to Columbus and his men all the 
food that they needed and to treat them well in every 
way. This they promised readily, for they were now 
thoroughly frightened. Soon the moon, which had become 
entirely black and invisible, began to get light on one side. 
The light streak grew wider and wider, as we now know 
it does when an eclipse is going away, and after a time 
the moon was shining as full and bright as before the 
eclipse. After this Columbus had no trouble in getting 
all the food that he needed. 

io6. Mendez in Haiti. — ^When Mendez reached Haiti 
he went to the governor, Ovando, and told him the story 
of Columbus on the stranded ships. Ovando, however, 
did not want to help Columbus and he told Mendez that 
he had no ship large enough to go for that big crew. No 
Indians could be found to go back with the lone Spaniard 
who had come over with Mendez, so it was impossible 
to get word back to Columbus. Finally Ovando decided 
to send a ship to Jamaica to see if Columbus and his men 
were still alive, but not to help them. This little ship 
appeared off the coast of Jamaica just eight months after 
Columbus's ships had stranded. A boat was sent to the 
shore with some provisions, but as soon as these had been 
put on board the ships of Columbus it suddenly rowed 



The Fourth Voyage 155 

away and went out to the ship lying off the shore. This 
ship was under the command of one of the worst enemies 
of Columbus, and he knew very well when he saw the 
captain that he would not be rescued at this time. Along 
with the provisions Ovando sent a letter, in which he 
promised to send a ship large enough to take away 
Columbus and his whole party as soon as one should come 
from Spain. The little ship went away and left the ship- 
wrecked crews alone. 

107. A Small Battle. — Columbus now sent Porras a 
copy of the letter from Ovando, with a request that he 
and his men return to the ships. Porras suspected that 
the letter might be a trick to get him and his men to place 
themselves in the hands of Columbus, who might put 
them in chains and imprison them. So they approached 
ready for a fight. Bartholomew now gathered together 
all the men on the ships who were in condition to fight — 
about fifty in all — and went out to meet them. Porras 
instructed his men to attack Bartholomew and attempt 
to kill him. Several of them surrounded him, but he was 
a good fighter and knocked them down one after another. 
Finally Bartholomew wounded Porras, took him prisoner 
with a number of his men, and carried them to the ships. 
Curiously enough, only two or three of Columbus's men 
were wounded in this fight, while the other side had a 
large number wounded and one killed. The followers of 
Porras now sent a messenger to Columbus, asking him to 
forgive them and promising that they would obey him 
and help him in every way if he would take them back. 
But Columbus hesitated, for he was afraid that after a 
while they might start another rebellion. Finally they 



156 The Story of Columbus 

were allowed to come back, but were separated and put 
under commanders whom Columbus could trust. Then 
he gave them little trinkets, which they could trade for 
food, and let them wander around the island, promising 
to call them as soon as the ships for which he was waiting 
should arrive. 

io8. The Ships of Rescue. — In the spring of 1504 three 
ships arrived from Spain at Santo Domingo, and Mendez, 
who was still in Haiti, bought one of them and sent it to 
rescue Columbus and his crews. About this time Ovando 
also sent a ship to Jamaica for Colimabus. The people of 
Haiti really forced Ovando to send this ship, for they knew 
that if Columbus and his men were not rescued they would 
soon perish. Out of sympathy for him they forced the 
cruel and brutal Ovando to do what he had refused to do 
for nearly a year. So one day about noon the stranded 
crews of Columbus saw two ships coming toward the shore. 

After returning to Spain, Columbus said that he had 
not in his whole life had so joyful a day as the day when 
these two ships appeared off the coast of Jamaica, for he 
had never expected to leave that place alive. Later on, 
a town called Christopher's Cove was founded at the 
place where Columbus and his followers lived that long 
year. It was on June twenty-eighth that everything was 
ready and Columbus left Jamaica for Haiti. We have 
seen that Mendez pushed his canoe over the open waters 
from Jamaica to Haiti in four days. Columbus and his 
two ships now took seven weeks to go from the west end 
of Jamaica to Santo Domingo. Ill luck seemed to be with 
them on this journey, and the winds were constantly 
against them. 



The Fourth Voyage 157 

109. Enslavement of Natives. — We will now repeat 
some of the stories about Haiti which were told to 
Columbus during these seven weeks. It was about four 
years since Columbus had been taken from Haiti to Spain, 
and during that time the management of the island had 
been in the hands of Bobadilla and Ovando. In these 
years the work of enslaving the natives which had been 
started by Columbus went on rapidly. It is true that for 
a while the complaints about the evils of this system had 
become so great that the King and Queen had ordered it 
stopped altogether. However, Ovando arranged matters 
so that he could go on with it. He wrote to the King and 
Queen that the natives would not do any work at all 
unless they were compelled to do it, and that some work 
was necessary to keep up their health. The King and Queen 
replied that while they did not want the natives treated as 
slaves, they wanted them to be given as much work as would 
be good for their health. This gave Ovando what he wanted, 
because he could easily see to it that in his reports the 
natives were made to work on account of their health. 

The natives were now compelled to work very hard 
in the mines and on the farms from six to eight months 
each year. The food given them was poor and there was 
not nearly enough of it. If they ran away, they were 
nearly sure to be caught, and when caught were severely 
punished and set to work again. The paths from the 
mines to the homes of the natives were strewn with the 
dead and dying. Starvation and overwork killed them 
by the hundreds and by the thousands. 

Thus, if we blame Columbus for enslaving the natives, 
we see that others who were sent out to the islands were 



158 The Story of Columbus 

no better than he, and many of them were worse. There 
was one thing which these Spaniards were all after, and 
that was gold and riches, and to obtain them they would 
go to any length in their cruelty and brutality. 

no. Wars Against the Natives. — In a part of the 
western end of the island of Haiti, Anacaona, the widow 
of Caonabo, was now reigning. Rumors came to Santo 
Domingo that a rebellion was being prepared in her 
dominion, and so Ovando decided to start out and take 
care of it early. He took with him three hundred soldiers, 
and seventy men on horseback. When he came into the 
dominion of Queen Anacaona she had no idea that the 
Spaniards were going to attack her people. She treated 
them as well as she could, gave them the best lodgings, 
called in some Indian chiefs, and prepared a feast and 
games in honor of her guests. Ovando, on his part, said 
he wanted to show the Queen how the Spaniards carried 
on their fights, so he arranged a mock fight between his 
men. When they were ready, the Spaniards, on a sign 
from Ovando, fell upon the poor natives and killed all 
who could not escape into the woods. They drove a 
nimiber of native Kings into a house, set fire to it and 
burned them alive. The Queen was taken prisoner and 
brought to Santo Domingo and later hanged. The excuse 
for all this was that Anacaona was supposed to be planning 
a rebellion against the Spaniards, but the reasons for 
believing this were not very good. The truth seems to 
be that Ovando wanted to show the natives what they 
might expect if they did not obey without any question 
whatsoever. So he stooped to this mean, low trick of 
going to the home of the Queen and then betraying her 



The Fourth Voyage 159 

while she was entertaining him and his followers as 
her guests. 

About this time there were signs that the natives in 
the east end of Haiti were also getting restless. Fierce 
Spanish dogs fell upon one of them and killed him. This 
made the natives so angry that they crept along the coast 
in canoes and killed what Spaniards they could. This 
outbreak was of course punished in the brutal manner 
usual with the Spaniards of those days. 

Such were the stories that were told to Columbus on 
his way from Jamaica to Haiti. Possibly they made him 
pity the poor natives whose ruin he had begun. But it 
is just as Ukely that these stories of brutality and treachery 
brought him comfort. Others were managing no better 
than he, and therein, he may have argued, lay the proof 
that he had not been at fault. 

III. From Haiti to Spain. — On September twelfth, 
1504, Columbus sailed for Spain from Santo Domingo. 
Besides the ship which Mendez had bought and sent to 
Jamaica to rescue him, Columbus obtained another and 
placed it in conmiand of his brother Bartholomew. Then, 
with his son and his brother, he started home. They had 
not gone far when a bad storm came up which broke the 
mast of one of the ships. Columbus transferred himself 
and his crew to the other ship and they continued their 
way toward Spain. The ill luck that had been with 
Columbus on this voyage stayed with him to the end. 
They ran into storm after storm, and the journey across 
the Atlantic took about two months. When he reached 
Spain, Columbus had been away from that country two 
and a half years. 



CHAPTER VI 

The Last Years of Columbus 

112. Letters from Columbus to His Son. — Columbus 
had been in bad health during the whole of his journey, 
and he was never really well during the rest of his Hfe. 
When he reached Spain he had to remain in the city of 
Seville for five months. During this time he wrote a 



r-~ . ^- 




■ S '^ 




-.V- 


^-7 •> ^ ■ ■ 



SIGNATURE AND MONOGRAM OF COLUMBUS 

series of letters to his son Diego which are of great value 
to us, for through them we learn a great deal about his 
thoughts and feelings. It will be remembered that Diego 
was a page of the Queen and was constantly at the Court, 
and so Columbus wrote to him about things which he 
hoped Diego might teU the Queen. Columbus also hoped 
to get some of his friends to help him at the Court. 

Shortly after he landed in Spain he asked Mendez to 
help him by talking with the King. He writes that Ovando 
had kept him from getting his share of the gold found in 
Haiti. ^'If the King and Queen would have Ovando keep 
an account of all the riches which have been found, they 
would gain just as much as I would." He suspects that 
160 



The Last Years of Columbus 161 

Porras, the man who rebelled at Jamaica, had influenced 
the King and Queen against him. He writes: ^^Recall 
through all this my own sickness and the pay that is due me 
for my services." He also hopes that the King and Queen 
would see to it that his sailors are paid. He says: ''They 
are poor and have been gone three years. They bring 
home good news from the gold fields of Veragua." One 
week later he complains about his illness. He sends his 
love to Mendez and hopes that he will have influence 
with the Court to overcome that of Porras. 

Two days before this last letter was written, that is 
on November twenty-sixth, Queen Isabella died. She had 
been the best friend that Columbus had at the Court. 
The King had been less willing to help him, and no doubt 
had always been sorry that they promised him such great 
powers as they did before he sailed on his first voyage. 
During the absence of Columbus on his last voyage the 
Queen had shown her interest in him by making his son 
one of her bodyguards, and she had naturalized his brother 
Diego so that he might be promoted to higher offices in 
the church. 

Columbus, indeed, was to see the Court once more, 
but his rights were never to be given him and he was to 
the day of his death to receive no encouragement whatso- 
ever from the King. 

On December first he writes to his son, blaming him 
for not writing: "I have no pleasure now but in a letter 
from you." Again he complains about his sickness and 
his want of money. He tells Diego to stick close to his 
younger brother. '^Ten brothers would not be too many 
for you; in good fortune as in bad fortune I have never 
11 



162 The Story of Columbus 

found better friends than my brothers." He explains that 
he cannot write to his friends because he had to write by 
night, since by day his hands are weak and painful. 

Two days later he writes: '' Everybody except myself 
is receiving letters." Then he speaks about the Queen, 
of whose death he has heard. '^One must believe she is 
now clothed with a sainted glory, no longer regretting the 
bitterness and weariness of this Hfe." He mentions the 
King, saying: ''He deserved all our sympathy." Again 
he goes back to his own plans. He says things are going 
badly in Haiti and that the right person could restore 
order there in three months. ''All of which I can do in 
the King's service and any one else not having my personal 
interest could not do it so wellJ' He says he had written 
a letter to the King about this but had received no reply. 

On December twenty-ninth he writes again, complain- 
ing that he had received no news. He again speaks of 
his sailors, who had not been paid. "They are poor," he 
says. "They are going to the Court to press their claims. 
Aid them in it." 

By reading the letters which he wrote during these 
long months in Seville we can see what Columbus was 
thinking most about. He was all the while trying to bring 
pressure to bear upon the King to have his rights in the 
West Indies given back to him. He believed that he 
should now be treated as one of the greatest men of the 
times. Instead, he was left alone and unnoticed in the 
port of Seville. He did not even receive letters, he was 
ill, and in as pitiful a condition as he well could be. 

113. Earlier Letter to Bank of Genoa. — We have 
already stated that before his fourth voyage Columbus 



The Last Years of Columbus 



163 



wrote a letter to a bank in his native city of Genoa, saying 
that he would have a tenth part of the income from his 




STATUE OF COLUMBUS IN GENOA 



property set aside for the purpose of helping to buy bread 
and other necessities of life for the working people of that 
city. That letter reached the bank in Genoa after a long 
time, and the answer did not reach Spain for an equally 



164 The Story of Columbus 

long time. Now Columbus thought the bank was not 
even decent enough to answer his letter. This made him 
bitter and dissatisfied. The truth was that the bank had 
answered the letter promptly and that much notice was 
taken of it in Genoa, but the news of this never reached 
Columbus. Such things helped to make his last years 
more bitter. 

114. Americus Vespucius. — During the last months 
at Seville, Columbus wrote an interesting letter about 
Americus Vespucius, after whom the continent of America 
was finally named. Vespucius had sailed along the north 
coast of South America on two different voyages. On his 
return from the second of these voyages he wrote a clear 
and simple story about it which came to be widely read, 
while the stories of Columbus about his voyages along the 
same coast were not generally known. Hence the land 
came to be called America, after Americus Vespucius. 
Surely Columbus had no idea of this when he wrote a 
very kindly letter about Vespucius to his son. Very 
naturally, the continent of America might have been called 
Columbia, and probably would have been so called if 
Columbus had written a story of his voyage as simple 
and clear as that of Vespucius. 

The letter about Vespucius, written to his son Diego 
a,nd dated February fifth, 1505, runs in part as follows: 
''Within the past few days I have talked with Americus 
Vespucius, who will bear this letter to you. He has been 
called to the Court about matters of navigation. He has 
always appeared to be friendly to me. Fortune has not 
always favored him, and in this he is not different from 
many others. His undertakings have not always been as 



The Last Years of Columbus 



165 




successful as he would 
wish. He left me with 
the kindliest purposes 
toward me and will 
do anything for me 
which is in his power. 
I hardly knew what to 
tell him would be help- 
ful for him to do for 
me, because I did not 
know why he had been 
called to the Court. 
Find out what he can 
do, and he will do it. 
The whole thing can 
be so managed that he 
will not be suspected of 
helping me. I have told 
him all that I could 
tell him as to my own 
affairs, both what I 
have done and what 
pay I have had. Show 
this letter to my brother 
Bartholomew so that 
he may help Vespucius 
to be of service to us." 

115. Columbus Again at Court. — Columbus set out 
from Seville for the Court on May fifth, 1505. We do 
not know just when he reached the Court, but we do know 
that the King listened to him patiently but would make no 




STATUE OP COLUMBUS AT SANTO DOMINGO 



166 



The Story of Columbus 



promises. Finally an old friend of Columbus, now one 
of the Bishops in Spain, was appointed as a judge to 
decide between Columbus and the Court. Columbus 
would not give up a single one of the rights and powers 
which he had received from the King and Queen before he 
sailed in 1492, and these rights and powers the King would 
not give back to him. It looked as though the King 
believed that Columbus was not fit to govern the colonies 

in the west. The King was 
willing to give Columbus 
large properties in Spain, 
providing he would give up 
the rights under the old 
promises, but this Columbus 
would not do. This was the 
same man who before he 
made his first voyage insisted 
so hard on what he wanted 




MAP OF SPAIN SHOWING VALLADOLID 



that he left the Court of Spain and started for France! 

Diego Mendez, about whom we have read a good deal 
in this story, remained a true friend of Columbus until 
the end. He did all he could for Columbus at the Court 
and elsewhere. Columbus now remained about the Court, 
following it from city to city, for about a year, but 
nothing was done for him. 

ii6. The End.— In May, 1506, in the city of Valla- 
dolid, he began to feel that his end was near. On May 
nineteenth he signed a will which he had written in his 
own hand about a year before. In this will be made his 
son Diego his heir both to his property and to his title 
of Admiral of the Indies. If Diego should die without 



The Last Years of Columbus 167 

children, his property should go to his other son, Ferdinand; 
and if Ferdinand should die without children, then the 
brother of Columbus, Bartholomew, should be his heir. 
By ^'heir" here is meant the male heir. In default of 
male heirs, then the title and rights should go to female 



HOUSE "WHERE COLUMBUS DIED 

heirs, and in the same order of succession. He requested 
all his descendants to be loyal to the King of Spain. Upon 
the head of the house he imposed the duty of helping all 
those of the family who might be in poor circumstances. 
One of his house should be appointed to live always at 
the city of Genoa to maintain the dignity of the family 
there. When his estate should be settled he provided 
that a cathedral should be erected in Haiti, in the Vega 
Real, which we remember as the valley near the settlement 
of Isabella. There were many other provisions in this 
will which we need not repeat here. He closed it by saying 



168 The Story of Columbus 

that all of these bequests could be made only when his 
rights are acknowledged. '' Hitherto I neither have had 
nor have I now any positive income." 

A copy of this will was made in 1524 by his son Diego 
and is now in existence. It is kept among the family 
papers in the hands of the Duke of Veragua. 

On the next day, May twentieth, in the city of Valla- 
dohd, Columbus died. He died at house number seven, 
on a street called Calle de Colon (Street of Columbus), 
and this house is still shown to travelers. 

117. Columbus Died Unnoticed. — It is surprising 
almost beyond belief how little notice the world took of 
the death of Columbus. The historian, Peter Martyr, 
who frequently mentioned Columbus, at this very time 
wrote five long letters from the city of Valladolid which 
have come down to us, but in them he did not say one 
word about the sickness or death of Columbus. Books 
written two or three years later about his voyages did 
not mention that he was dead. The man who in 1493 
had been received Uke a king at the Court of Spain was 
now so forgotten that not even his death was mourned. 
No more attention was paid to his burial than would 
be paid to that of any other poor person whose body is 
carried to its last resting place, unnoticed by all except 
the close personal friends and the near relatives. So died 
one of the most remarkable of all men — one to whom 
fame has later given one of the highest places among the 
very great. 



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